Korë
by TheHarleyQueen
Summary: "Mal," her mother's voice says as she breathes in and closes her eyes. "You are fae." / "Korë," her father's name for her echoes through her mind as she exhales, "you are half goddess- do whatever the hell you want." She feels the weight of the Promise settle on her. She will keep this Promise, or she will die. And she has come too far to die.
1. all of my enemies started out friends

**Book 1: ****Korë**

* * *

_Mal_ her mother's voice says as she breathes in and closes her eyes. _Fae_ she reminds herself. _You are fae. Your word is truth. Your Promises are always fulfilled._

_Korë_ her father's name for her echoes through her mind as she exhales. _You are half goddess_. _Don't forget_. _Never let anyone hold something over you_.

She opens her eyes.

"Every child currently on the Isle of the Lost will be given a chance to come to Auradon if it pleases them," she swears. Uma's eyes narrow and she completes her vow, "I Promise."

_She feels the weight of the Promise settle on her. Underneath her tongue, in her bones and her teeth. It thrums in her blood. She will keep this Promise, or she will die._

_She has come too far to die._

* * *

From the moment she was born, Mal's mother made sure she knew that she was _fae_. She was a fairy, and that meant things. It meant keeping the power balance in her own favour- if someone did something _nice_ for you, you repaid them instantly so they couldn't ask for more from you. Hold their Promises close to your heart, take them at their word even when they don't mean it. _Don't promise them anything_, Maleficent would remind her every night. _Never owe anyone anything, Mal, because that's no way for a fairy to live_.

She also liked to snap at Mal- _don't give handouts_. _We're not Seelie. We don't do favours for friends. We're fae, and we have pride._

Of course, it wasn't that simple. Mal wasn't just fae, couldn't be. Because her magic worked on the Isle. She could cast and conjure and curse people to her heart's content. But she didn't say anything, never asked, because her mother would _never_ tell her the name of the man she'd allowed into her bed.

Mal doesn't really mean to start helping the kids of the Isle of the Lost.

It starts with Carlos de Vil, six years old and on the verge of death (he cannot _die_ on the Isle of the Lost, but tas long as he doesn't get food, he will not get better, so instead she lets her magic- _magic that she shouldn't have-_ find him and heal him).

She does his chores too, without even having to lift a finger or say a word (_she comes back the next night, fully intending to only check up on him. Instead, she does his chores again, as he is asleep and whimpering {she tells herself it's because she can't stand the pathetic whispering noise, but she's lying to herself}_).

She starts helping Uma, Ursula's daughter, next. It's still not something that she's doing on purpose (_her mom thinks that she's out all night committing crimes. She refuses to disavow her of this belief_). But she hears a wet _smack_ on her way back from the hideout she's started creating near the docks, and she can't help herself.

Uma has a throbbing welt on her cheek, and she's mopping the floor of the fish and chips shop. It's not hard for Mal to put two and two together (_she's lazy, and doesn't bother waiting for Uma to fall asleep to start casting. She stays out of sight, though {Uma must be well-read by Isle standards, because the next night, she leaves out milk and honey. The milk isn't spoiled, and the honey is sweet, if raw. Mal wonders how she got it, and doesn't ask_).

She creates a collection of VKs that she secretly helps. She leaves trinkets for Jay so that he always has something to give to his father (_he leaves her liquor, which she drinks even though she shouldn't_). She does Harry and Uma's chores, and they leave her milk and honey. She helps Carlos, and he leaves her nothing (_he's her favourite, for this, because she doesn't want to acknowledge what she's doing, that she's acting Seelie_). She does Evie's sewing for her mother so that Evie can focus on her own pieces (_Evie leaves her acorn shells filled with brown sugar. It's a witch's gift, and Mal smirks and says nothing_).

She helps them and pretends she doesn't, but when she's around them, her magic echoes one word. _Mine_, it says. _Mine_ tattoos her heart. _Mine_.

It goes on for years. She wonders how she pulls it off every night, slipping out and fixing problems. She wonders how her mother doesn't catch word of it. She's scared that one day, she will. Mal tries to not think about that day, and what she'll do when it comes. Although she helps her VKs, they owe her nothing. She keeps it that way. She's doing favours, but she's not like Celia, who holds the favours over people's heads. She doesn't want payment.

A year into her scheme, she realises that it might be helpful to have her VKs officially on her side. She doesn't call in any debts (_they don't owe any_). Instead, she starts courting each of them, slowly. She starts with Carlos, who is desperate for any sort of protection- from his mother, from the others on the Isle. She gets Jay with wild exploits and adventure and theft. She pulls Uma in by regularly tipping at the fish and chips shop (_with other people's money, but still_). Harry and Gil follow Uma like it's the most natural thing in the world for them.

She gets Evie with sweet words and a promise from her mother to lift the banishment (_Evie does owe her for that, but Mal doesn't tell her_).

It works, for a while. Two other gangs form across the Isle- the Huns, Harriet and the rest of the pirates- but her people are stronger, better, faster than everyone else. _Mal doesn't tell them about the magic running in her blood like a wildfire. She's recruited them, but she doesn't trust them, Not yet_.

Uma leaves her several coins. She doesn't know what sparks the change (_Uma's mother found out she was wasting the milk and honey and hid them_). They're probably worth less than the milk and honey, but Mal refuses to help her after that. She's not a servant, she doesn't want payment. She doesn't want to be _owned _(_those coins are the reason she kicks Uma out of the gang. She can't look at the girl without feeling like she serves her, now. Harry goes with Uma, and Mal says __**good riddance**_ _even as Carlos and Evie look at her reproachfully_).

* * *

Mal is twelve when she meets her dad for the first time. It explains a _lot _of things. Why they'd never met. Why she could do magic on the Isle when no one else she knew could, not even her mother, who was the _Mistress of All Evil_.

She had been at Coward's Market, walking aimlessly. Thinking, she liked to say when people were stupid enough to ask (before staring them down with luminous green eyes). Really, she was _feeling_. Letting the tendrils of her magic swirl out across the market, picking up emotion, secrets, power. People cleared out of her way as she walked, which was how she managed to quite literally bump into her father (not that she'd known it then).

Hades swung around to glare down at her, hair flickering into fire and eyes pitch black. Mal had stared up with wide eyes and had braced herself for the first hit. The villains were temperamental, every child on the Isle knew that, and Hades had a _reputation_ amongst the villains. No one on the Isle could die, but she'd heard stories of people left for worse-than-dead (she'd been told those stories, as something akin to bedtime stories, by her mother- on the Isle, age was no measure of what someone could handle). The blows never came- nothing, not even a smack across the cheek. The god bent over, to stare into her eyes, and went as far as to push her chin up so that he could see better before saying, quite loudly, "What the _fuck _has that woman done to you?"

Mal had bit the inside of her cheek and said nothing. If she'd learned anything in her short, ugly life, it was that talking ill of Maleficent lead nowhere. But Hades had grabbed her wrist and pulled her back to Maleficent's palace, holding tightly enough that there would be bruises for a week.

The god burst through the door and Mal finally managed to pull her wrist from him. She rubbed it and glanced around for her mother.

"Maleficent!" He roared, voice shaking the foundations of the crumbling house that Maleficent insisted was a palace, "Maleficent! What the fuck have you done to my daughter!?"

Mal let the words wash over her, closing her eyes to hear the words thrumming in her veins. _My daughter. My daughter. My daughter._

It was how she missed her mother as she sauntered down the stairs, laughing softly {_not the wild cackle that sent cowards running for the hills. The soft, sinister laugh that chilled Mal to the bone_}.

"I made her fae," Maleficent said, and Mal could remember every time her mother had said it. _I'm making you fae_. _Be grateful_. _If it weren't for me, you'd be human. You __**owe**_ _me._ She opened her eyes to see her mother smirking, to see Hades (_her father_) glowing with the effort of keeping his power contained.

"You made her _you_," Hades growled, stepping forward, closing the gap between them.

"Mal isn't me, unfortunately. It's a shame, but that's what I get for reproducing the _human_ way."

"Mal?" Hades scoffed, lip curling, "That's not even a real name, Maleficent. And it's not _her_ name. We agreed on her name."

"You decided," Maleficent shot back, "But I was never going to name my daughter after _your wife_."

"If I'd known you just wanted to remake yourself in our daughter, I'd have told you to go fuck yourself when you came to me."

_Our daughter_.

"Well, I guess you made the wrong choice when you fucked me instead," her mother had snapped. Hades' eyes had glowed, and Mal had been certain that her mother was about to die.

But instead, her father had rolled his eyes and stepped back (_not a victory for Maleficent, but mercy from Hades_). His eyes landed on her, and she'd felt his power (_that felt like iron against her skin_) settle around her. She'd looked up at him through blue hair and black eyes and magic that was like hers but _harsher_, and he had knelt to her height and looked her in the eyes.

"Your name is Korë," he told her.

"You are my blood. The daughter of Hades. I expect you not to _waste_ the gift I've given you."

He turned to leave, and she was perfectly happy to let him, but- "How do I do that?"

He grinned _wickedly_ at her.

"By doing _whatever the hell you want_."

* * *

Mal (_Korë_) takes her father's message to heart. She lets herself run wild in the street of the Isle. She burns down buildings and ruins people. She runs with Evie, Carlos and Jay in the day, and does chores for them at night (_she doesn't tell anyone, but now, she refuses to be shamed by it_).

In private, her hair is blue and her eyes and wings are black, but no one with any sense of self-preservation says anything (_she learns to cast glamours like it's breathing, and switches between purple and blue like it's what she was born to do_).

Mal lives vicariously on the Isle, she does stupid shit and knows that she'll be bailed out by her mother's name (_and her father's, if necessary_). She makes alliances (_Dizzy, Celia, CJ_) and she runs the Isle's teenage underground.

She kisses Carlos first, at midnight (_the year they'll be sent to Auradon, even though they don't know that_). She kisses Evie within the same minute and Jay after that.

They make sense, the four of them. They run together anyway, and they spend most of their nights together, curled up in their hideout (_it's a miracle they haven't figured out where she slips away to yet- or maybe they have, and are granting her a small mercy by pretending they haven't_)(_it's the second one_). They love the same way they fight- wild and magical and angry (_at the world, at their parents, at Auradon_). They do whatever the hell they want, and they're beautiful while doing it.

_They promise each other that it won't change when they go to Auradon. Mal spells Ben and then falls in love with him*. Evie finds someone for whom she can be Princess Charming. Jay finds a new family in like-minded people. Carlos finds solace in animals and being away from his mother. And in all of this, they hold tightly onto each other, as if the other three are the only reason they still exist._

_*(she thinks)_


	2. i see right through me

The Princeling starts an "initiative" that's supposed to bring all of the kids from the Isle of the Lost over to live in Auradon. She assumes he'll start with the babies, the kids who need it the most, who are the worst off while they're trapped with their psychotic parents.

Instead, he "randomly selects" her, Evie, Carlos and Jay, and Mal _riots_. The Isle is in her blood- for all means and purposes, it's her birthright, and he's ripping her away (and, by extension, the _one thing_ that protecting Isle kids, and stopping all-out warfare from breaking out amongst the citizens of the Isle {_she's got a mole, somewhere, and she calls all of her people together and threatens to_ _**burn the Isle down**_ _if they aren't found_}.

She spends the rest of the _single day_ she has before being shipped off to Auradon securing her magic. She binds it to every object of magical value, regardless of the fact that they're all worthless right now. She weaves a net across the Isle, and attunes herself to it so finely that she knows when someone steps outside their home (she doesn't know if the magic will hold when she's in Auradon, because it's part-fae {_like her_}, but she does it anyway, because the Isle is hers, and these people are hers, even if they don't know it) (even Uma, who fights with her on every available occasion and pushes her to the point that Mal would be well-justified to _raze her to the ground_, is hers).

Leaving the Isle is the hardest thing she's ever had to do. Her magic screams at her to stay in her place with _her_ people {_it's harder than when she had looked at Uma and told her to leave, because then her magic had screamed 'stay', too, but her pride had said 'go'_}.

Before she leaves, her mother looks her in her eyes and says, "_Promise me_ you'll steal the wand."

She doesn't have a choice.

They make it to Auardon, and between the sun beaming down like it's out to get them and the people whose smiles are stretches so wide it's almost grotesque, Mal _loathes _it. It's all she's never wanted.

They're in a land where magic is real and available, and yet she feels nothing. There are sparks when she's in the vicinity of Hesperos (who is a _god_), but mostly, she walks around with the desert-dryness clinging to her skin and feeling like absolute shit. People thank her for coming to Auradon (for nothing at all) and she grins through the weight of Promises that people don't know they're making.

They try to steal the wand that night. It's reckless, because they're going in with no plan, no background knowledge at all (_it feels like years ago, before they'd developed a network of Isle kids who told them everything they could possibly need to know_), but they just want to be _gone_ from this place where it feels like magic _should_ be, but isn't (_at least on the Isle, the only magic was Mal's and her father's. Mal didn't expect any other magic to exist, there_).

They fail, and Mal expects them to be sent back without even a trial (_like their parents_). But the museum must have the _worst _security in the world, because even though she waited up all night for the Auradonian Guard Force to come to break down the door to their dorm, it never comes (she lies on Evie's bed, holding her girlfriend tight- it might be the last night that she gets to)(she plans to say she coerced the others. _They _can't go back empty-handed, because Maleficent will kill them. Hades will keep her mother at bay for her, though. She thinks).

They end up in 'Goodness 101' the next day, staring blankly at the Fairy Godmother as she tries to drill them on the 'good' option (_Mal sketches the wand and thinks about how morality isn't objective, how all of Auradon society is based on a logical fallacy_). She parrots the answers the headmistress expects of her and ignores the consequences that would come with following through on these actions. _Whatever the hell you want_, her father had said, and sitting in 'Goodness 101' is not it.

She sends Evie off to Science with a smile and encouragement to keep her intelligence under wraps (Evie is _brilliant, _but underestimation is a handy tool and people like Evie-the-Ditz more than Evie-the-Genius because Evie-the-Ditz isn't a threat). She sends Jay and Carlos off to Tourney, with similar instructions- Carlos should look weak and intelligent, Jay should look strong and stupid. It's their tried-and-true method, and no one on the Isle really buys it anymore, but she'd bet her life that the people of Auradon will.

She corners the Fairy Godmother's daughter in the bathroom- and picks her apart before she even makes a move. Her name is Jane- plain Jane, Mal would bet. She thinks she's ugly because she doesn't know how to dress for herself. She wants to be like Audrey, looks up to the other princess _(so far, every time that Mal has bumped into Audrey, she's thought the girl weak of spirit, and so far, she hasn't been proved wrong)_. It's so easy for Mal to hurt the girl- hell, she hardly has to try. She places a basic glamour over Jane, similar to the one she holds in place over her own looks, and Jane thanks her _profusely. _Mal doesn't let her lips curl into a smile, even though Jane now owes her a debt _and_ Mal knows her name (_her mother is the Fairy Godmother, Jane is a fairy. Shouldn't they know better?_). She doesn't even have to lie- nothing she can do to Jane's looks will be permanent, but anything the wand does will be.

* * *

When she sees her in their dorm, Mal barely makes eye contact with Evie before she kisses her, _hard_, because there's something is Evie's eyes that Mal knows, and _hates_ (_it's the look of a girl who's been using her looks to get what she wants, it's the look Evie came home with every day on the Isle_). Evie's doing two sets of homework and stitching a dress, and she's doing it all without any magic. She's a saint, Mal swears.

Furious steps echo outside their door, and they hardly manage to pull themselves apart before Jane storms in, already complaining about her mother.

They tune her out, providing some commentary if necessary but mostly just letting the girl talk herself hoarse while they banter in the background ("_you've never had one"- no, she's had two, and a girlfriend_). But their luck must be holding, or maybe Mal's magic is working for her because Li Lonnie steps through the door (_inviting herself in, how Auradon of her. On the Isle, you'd get hurt for that_).

Evie tries to save her, she _really_ does, offering to do her hair so that she doesn't owe Mal anything, but Li Lonnie all but _demands_ a spell, so Mal smirks and accepts the debt (_on the Isle Mal didn't take debt from unsuspecting kids because they didn't have anything to give- here, the princes and princesses expect things to be given to them and hand out their full names, and Mal can't wait for the day when she calls it and asks for something and they have to __**give**_).

Li Lonnie gives Mal an idea, though. Because people want things, and Mal can deliver those things, and it's all too easy to tell her to spread the word that Mal will do people's hair (_she princess's debts and it's like taking candy from a baby_).

But it's making people think she's nice (and it turns out to… not feel bad, having people think she's nice. It's also brilliantly useful for her strategy, which is falling apart around her. She encourages Jay, Evie and Carlos to open up to a couple of people, let everyone think they're softening).

She spends what little free time she has with the three of them, and they kiss softly in their dorms where no one can see. She drops her glamour in that free time, letting her hair fade back to blue and letting her wings spread out. But when they leave the dorm, she recolours her hair and hides her wings and eyes, and she and Evie walk with pinkies linked in corridors, and Jay and Carlos sling their arms around their girls' shoulders. Mal thinks about _whatever the hell I want_ and imagines kissing them in broad daylight instead of behind closed doors (she doesn't, though. Her father's advice is all well and good, but it's not helpful, not in Auradon where everyone is expected to curb their desires).

* * *

So, as it turns out, Mal needs to seduce Ben. They consider doing it the old-fashioned way (_Evie's way_), but now they have access to magic and spells at their disposal, and nothing can be allowed to go wrong. So they use a love spell (_in the spellbook, it warns of a time the spell was used to make a man fall in love with a horse- they laugh and say that it's a perfect choice_).

Li Lonnie is their saving grace, barging in in the middle of the night and crying over their parents not _loving_ them enough (_Mal thinks of Hades roaring at Maleficent in fury, and wonders_).

They spell Ben, and it all goes to hell.

"_I would give my kingdom for just one kiss_," he tells her, and Mal promises herself that she won't kiss him (she's not above collecting debt made by unknowing kids, but this- this is _wrong_, she tells herself. That's not a debt, that's a Promise that Ben;'s making, and her mother's words- '_take them at their word even when they don't mean it_' ring in her head. Mal tries to shake off the Promise, but it seals itself into her bones and her lungs).

She goes on a date with him, a date which her _girlfriend_ helps her prepare for and her _boyfriends_ coach her through. They need to do this, even though they're _them_ and Mal _hates _this plan.

But then he nearly _dies _and that would wreck every single plan she's made, so Mal dives in to try and save him (her Promise to her mother presses down on her lungs and she can't _breathe_ until she sees Ben, alive and well).

He tries to introduce her to his parents not even a week later, and she rolls her eyes at Evie, Jay and Carlos but plays along, smiling prettily and pretending she understands having loving parents (_her mother stutters when she says I miss you, because she's lying and it hurts the fae to lie_).

Audrey's grandmother convinces her to go through with it. Because if her daughter grew up with fairies, she should _know better_ than to antagonize one. Then Chad attacks Evie, and Mal wants to fucking _kill_ him, but Ben and Carlos are holding her back (Jay gets a good punch in, though) (she undoes Jane's hair in a fit of pettiness. She feels like her mother, like a _fairy_ when she does it. Afterwards, she feels worse than before. But still- _whatever the hell she wants_).

* * *

Mal doesn't know why she unspells Ben. Probably because she doesn't want him to be panting after her while she's ruling his kingdom with Evie, Jay and Carlos at her side (even her mother can't live forever. Eventually it will be Mal's turn- it's what she was _born _for). She doesn't love him, but her doesn't deserve to be in love with her (_when he reveals that he's been free of her love spell since the enchanted lake, she freezes. Her plan never accounted for him actually wanting her. Eventually, she smiles and him and turns her face just in time, so that his lips meet her cheek instead of her lips_).

Mal plans on going through with it, but only after Ben is king. It's a lot easier to take a kingdom from a week-old king than from the man who established it. Plain Jane beats her to it, though, threatening to "do it herself". Mal doesn't have to think about it, her mother's warnings- _magic in the hands of the inexperienced can be more dangerous than magic in the hands of the experienced, Mal-_ ringing in her ears as she snatches the wand from Jane. Her lovers run down to meet her, and she wants to run because she's so _close_ to fulfilling her Promise, to having the suffocating weight of it off her chest.

But Ben asks her if she _wants_ to do it. The answer is _no_, but she doesn't have a choice.

She tells him as much, but can't find the words to explain that it's not her mother she's scared of, it's her own magic.

She doesn't have to, though, because her mother appears in the centre of the cathedral.

"Give me the wand, Mal. You _promised_."

She did. She Promised she'd steal the wand. And she has. But she never promised to give it to her mother.

What follows next is a blur. Years later, Mal won't be able to exactly place the series of events, but she knows that a couple of things happen: her mother turns into a dragon, Ben tells her he loves her, she gets the wand back, and her mother shrinks down to the size of a lizard (_the Fairy Godmother tells her that it's the size of the love in her heart, but Mal thinks that it's not that deep. She'd wanted to make her mother feel as small as she had her whole life, and this was the result_).

* * *

After the Coronation, Mal does something she doesn't want to. She breaks up with Evie, Carlos and Jay. She hates herself for doing it, hears Evie crying herself to sleep every night for a week. But Mal can't trust that it's not her status as the king's girlfriend keeping them safe and off the Isle. Mal has been using her status to keep herself and her people safe for _years_, and this is no different. She will be Ben's loving, dedicated girlfriend, his Lady of the Court, his anything and everything to keep her people safe.

_This is what she tells herself now, but after months of collecting debts from people who introduce themselves and thank her for saving them from her mother, after feeling the people on the Isle rioting against her magic and protection, after seeing that Evie, Jay and Carlos are Auradonian enough that they won't be left to rot from the moment she leaves, Mal lets her glamour slip off and she goes back to reclaim her kingdom and her people. Because it's what she __**wants**__, and she tells herself that she's spent long enough denying her father's legacy._


	3. couldn't put me together again

A week after the coronation, Mal dyes her hair blonde (_it's the same day she breaks up with Carlos, Evie and Jay- she can't bear to look like herself and not be with them, but when a pale-haired girl looks out of the mirror, Mal can remember that she's in love with Ben_).

Two weeks after the coronation, she asks Carlos to teach her to read English (_her mother's spellbook, the only material she ever felt the desire to read, is written in the old tongue of the fae- that it sounds like silly rhymes is an old party trick that fairies used to use to keep their spells secret_).

Three weeks after the coronation, when her roots start growing out and she has to bleach her hair again, and the words blur in front of her eyes as she struggles to make it through a page of the etiquette book Queen Mother Belle has leant her, so she puts it down and pick up her mother's spellbook. It feels like fate when she finds a spell to change the colour of hair, and she casts it without really thinking. She's fae, and it's _natural _for the fae to use magic to ease their burden.

She forgets all about it.

Four weeks after the coronation, she and Evie are laughing again, like they used to (_that's a lie- Mal doesn't kiss her when she giggles wildly anymore, and so it's nothing like it used to be_). She and Jay sneak out to spar, to keep their skills sharp (_they've always been the protectors, and that's not going to change because they're in Auradon, or because they're not dating_). And Carlos is still trying to teach her to read, but it's slow going. So when Evie and Carlos approach her with a speed-reading spell, she thanks them profusely (_wants to press kisses to their noses and cheeks and foreheads and lips, but doesn't_).

The spell doesn't suddenly make her reading perfect, but now she's fast enough that even when she has to read a word four times to get it right, it only takes a couple of seconds. She managed to give the Queen Mother her book back within the week, and Belle looks slightly put out (she's had the book for two weeks) until Mal asks her for another, and then she _beams_.

Life goes on like this for a while. Mal's trying her best to be the perfect girlfriend for Ben, and she thinks it's working. She's in love with him, which definitely makes it easier. They're going on pristine dates, and she _loves_ him for it, for how much he loves her.

She meets her stepmother two months after Ben's coronation. She and Ben (well, Ben, and by extension her as his current date to _everything_) had been invited to a ball hosted by the Olympians, and, naturally, the Queen of the Underworld was there.

Queen Persephone watches her with dark, unreadable eyes. She's wearing a crown made out of daisies, and a black toga, and she's talking to - who Mal _thinks _are- Hera and Amphitrite. Mal tries to shake it off. She's sure Persephone knows, although she doesn't know _how_. No one else seems to, and Mal doesn't really want them to. So she walks around on Ben's arm, glitzy and ditzy, trying to prove that she isn't a threat (_no one is really a threat to the gods, but they like deference_).

The goddess of spring corners her in the bathroom (while she's talking, Mal tries to forget her abrupt, cruel conversation with Jane. It doesn't work very well).

"I'd like for you to drop the glamour," she says pleasantly, but it's nothing but a thinly-veiled command. Mal follows the instruction, letting her magic fall away to reveal navy hair and black eyes, nearly-blue skin and feathery wings.

Queen Persephone nods as if it's what she expected.

"He told me he named you Korë," she says (Mal wonders how Hades managed to _tell_ her anything, and then she remembers that she's talking to a goddess), smile playing on her lips like it's a _joke_, "He named you after me, as if that would appease me. After he cheated on me. After he had a _kid_ without me. After he _married _your mother so that you wouldn't be a bastard, because bastard fairies are killed. Is this true?"

Mal nods silently. She's never been cowed like this before, not by her mother or her father or anyone, really, and she _hates _the feeling.

"But you don't go by it," it's a statement of fact, and Mal feels her muscles tense, ready to defend herself should this goddess choose to try and take revenge here and now (_she knows it's futile. That doesn't stop her_). She shakes her head, confirming that she doesn't use her given name.

"Why?" Persephone is unfailingly polite, but there's a fury behind her eyes, and Mal understands how she managed to love Mal's father. They're _alike_.

"Speak, Korë. I won't strike you for it." Another command.

"My mother," the words bubble out before Mal can think it through- before she can decide if she wants to protect her mother. Persephone knows her name, and Mal can feel its influence over her, pulling the truth from her, "was furious when I was born more like him than like her. Because she reproduced the human way, she said. So she made me what I'd be if I'd been born fully fae. _She made me fae_."

"Did she think I would hate her less if her child with my husband didn't look like him? I still _know_ that you're his." Mal watches the queen warily.

"With all due respect, your grace, you have a daughter that's not his," the words slip out before Mal can stop them, defending… something. Her mother, or her father, or her birth. She's not sure. Fury cracks behind Persephone's eyes and Mal is sure she will die. She thinks that if she dies here, tonight, she will regret having left Jay, Evie and Carlos at Auradon Prep with only a "see you later". She will regret having kicked Uma to the curb even when her magic screamed at her that Uma was one of her people. She will regret not having used every last drop of the magic in her veins.

But she doesn't die. Persephone sighs, and brushes back the dark curls that have fallen from her crown.

"You know your history, Korë." Mal's knees nearly give in when she realizes that she's not about to die at her stepmother's hand for mentioning her daughter.

"I love Melinoë. She's my daughter. And I remember how terrified I was that my husband would murder her, just because she wasn't his," there's a silence between them, and Mal waits for her sentencing.

"Who knows?" The question startles her, it's so out of place.

"You. My mother. Him." She has to fight to keep Evie, Jay and Carlos's names from following, and she manages only by telling herself that she's never explicitly _told _them.

"I want you to Promise me that you won't tell anyone else." Mal stares at her with wide eyes, somewhere between terrified and grateful.

"You said your mother _made you fae_. Is that true?"

"Yes."

"The fae _must_ keep their Promises. So _Promise _me that no one will find out from you, and I'll let you live. Peacefully. Free. I just don't want anyone to know."

"I _swear_ that no one will ever find out that I'm Hades' daughter from me," her voice comes out hoarse, made that way by a mixture of relief and fear.

Persephone nods once and leaves. Mal thinks she hears her say _thank you_ but then convinces herself that she dreamed it.

She rushes out of the bathroom behind her, already having been gone for too long.

* * *

It only takes a couple more events of the same calibre for Mal to snap. She's not surprised by it, not really. She was never cut out for this life, this _perfect_ and _wholesome_ and _good_ existence. And she's not cut out for being _glitzy and ditzy_. She's made to run with her people, made to collect debts and hold her family close and fight for her life.

Ben finds out that she's been using spells, and it's all downhill from there.

She runs from the responsibilities she hated, the life she didn't want, and the scrutiny of Auradon. She runs from her boyfriend, who has asked her to be engaged-to-be-engaged-to-be-engaged without her realising. She runs from her ex-lovers, and she regrets it, even as she bursts through the barrier and tastes freedom on her tongue.

She runs into a turf war.

Uma and her gang are practically in the middle of a street fight with the Huns, hissing and spitting curses at each other. There are knives and pieces of glass {_and a hook_} being brandished, and the tyres on Mal's (stolen) scooter squeal as she stops between them.

Maybe on any other day, she would have tried to be diplomatic. Maybe if she and Ben hadn't just fought, she'd try for peace and not war. As it was, she was angry and tired, and it was the Isle, and Uma was _hers_. Her magic was fracturing and rebuilding itself beneath her skin, becoming reaccustomed to access to only her godly powers.

She watches her magic flare out around her, bringing the Huns to their knees, and then she feels the world go dark.

* * *

"Wake up, Queenie!" It's Uma's voice, harsh and angry and _home,_ that wakes her up again.

"What's- where's-" as she comes back to herself, she sits up. It's too fast, and she feels her head spin with the exertion.

"Circe! Calm the fuck down, Queenie," Uma's hand push her back down to the bed, and Mal lets her, exhausted magically and emotionally.

"Where am I?"

"Back of the shop."

Mal raises her eyebrow at Uma, but the sea witch says nothing. They both know that she shouldn't be here. They both know the other won't say anything.

"Your _lover_ came after you," Uma informs her, and it's the detachment in her voice that confirms for Mal, "Ben's here?"

"Sharp, aren't you, Queenie? Yeah. E, Carlos and Jay brought him when they came to fetch _you_ back after your temper tantrum."

"It wasn't a temper tantrum. I'm not going back." Mal insists, and she can _feel_ Uma's disdain.

"You're going back," Uma tells her, "because _you're_ the only one with the power to bring the rest of us over. It's always been your job to look after the kids, Queenie. Make good on your _Promises_."

Mal shakes her head, but her eye catches on the short blue curls that go flying. "My hair-"

"-did that when you broke through the barrier, yeah. No clue why. Ain't you supposed to be Maleficent, Queenie?"

"Something like that," Mal tells her, her promise to Queen Persephone thick on her vocal cords.

Uma purses her lips and says nothing. She's not an idiot and has _definitely_ already figured it out. Mal changes the subject.

"Why are you calling me that?"

"Calling you what?" Uma feigns ignorance, but Mal just lifts an eyebrow at her.

"Ain't like it's not true," Uma changes tactics, "Didn't lover boy, like, propose already?"

"He didn't- I mean, I didn't know," Mal tries to stutter her way through and explanation, but Uma just cuts her off again.

"Calm the fuck down, your majesty. Look, I'm _not actually_ calling you that because of Ben."

"You're… not?"

"No. Look, I know what this is gonna sound like, but- we took a vote." Mal knows what that means. It's a catch _she _put in place when she still ran the Isle. If Auradon ever wanted to negotiate, they _needed_ to come under one banner, and the Vote was made to choose the banner. But there's no one who would call the Vote without her, unless-

"Evie."

"She's a fucking force of nature, you know. After you came rushing back in here an' took all the Huns down with you, we were 'bout to take the fight to the King instead. Then E came charging in saying that _his majesty_ would speak to a representative fo the Isle, but only _one_. We called all the gangs together, but no one wanted to send another group's leader. The Huns wanted to end Lei, the Witches wanted to send Freddie. I eventually nominated you- you're already off, you ain't just gonna be fighting for you, E, Carlos and Jay."

"And you figured that I might at least fight for you considering our history."

Uma shrugged, unrepentant, "I don't know hat I did to offend you, Queenie, but I know you're fae enough that your magic is attached to me. That it hurts you when I'm gone. I'm gonna use that to my advantage."

Mal pushes herself up from the bed, shuddering as she feels the glamour she cast settle over her again. It feels like she's underneath a blanket, just _slightly_ muffled.

"Let's go, then," she says, and Uma leads the way to the front of the shop, no questions asked. As they get closer, Mal hears a familiar voice- "Please, Evie, who am I meeting?" Ben is questioning her... _ex-_girlfriend.

She lets herself step into the light; she's got purple hair and green eyes and _no wings_ again, but Ben still looks at her like she hung the moon.

"_Mal,_" he breathes, and she feels a smile crawl onto her lips. She may often be frustrated with Auradon, with the expectations it has of her, but she _loves_ Ben.

"_Queen_ Mal," Evie emphasizes, pride in her voice and her eyes, "of the Isle of the Lost."

"_You're_ the representative?" It's not scornful or disbelieving, but _relieved_.

"In the flesh," Mal tells him and then waits for him to sit down. She's been negotiating for years, and there's a pattern that she follows, these are steps that she knows. She breathes in deeply, exhaling through her nose.

_Let the games begin_.

* * *

Cotillion is bright and beautiful and the decorations remind Mal _just _too much of the party on Olympus for her to be completely comfortable (_or maybe it's the guests, she thinks as she watches Queen Persephone from the corner of her eye_). But Mal is finally in her element. She's not _glitzy and ditzy_, but she's bright and bold, her hair purple and her dress (redesigned after she and Evie returned, now black and purple and a beautiful mix of Isle and Auradon) still glitters, but it's _finally_ not what people care about.

Their eyes are drawn- as she knew they would be- to the crown she wears. It's made of obsidian and inlaid with moonstone, and she's reminding them all that she's Queen of the Isle before she's anything of Auradon.

It's a beautiful feeling.

_Persephone watches the girl who looks nothing like her father from where she stands, hardly paying attention to what Belle says. The girl has claimed a kingdom and a people and has done it all without her father's name, and she wonders what Korë could accomplish with blue hair and black eyes and the title of Daughter of Hades._

_Carlos spins Mal around as they dance- they were always the dancers, of the four of them- and he thinks about how she's fae and goddess and a queen how no name or title is as important to him as the one she's given up._

_Jay stands at the railing with her in the quiet hours, when some of the guests have already gone home, and they sip the illegal champagne he snagged when a waiter wasn't looking. He stares at her, openly, because she broke their hearts and she should __**know **__that._

_Evie flits around all evening, socializing and making connections, that stuff that Mal hates, the stuff that she was brought up to do. The entire evening, she keeps track of Mal, expecting her to crack, but she never does. Evie's heart swells and shatters again when Mal kisses her cheek before they climb into bed (still the one bed, pushed together. Broken up or not, they still have nightmares)._

_Ben dances with his girlfriend until his feet are sore and his cheeks are flushed. He holds Mal close for as long as possible- Mal, a queen, one day __**his **__queen._

_Mal lets herself forget, for a night. Forget the problems that await her, forget that she's responsible for a people now and lets herself revel in her success and in __**love**__._


	4. i'm ready for combat

_**I had intended for all of D3 to be one chapter, but the writing was going so slowly and I wanted to give you something, so here's D3 part 1. I hope you enjoy it. Let me know if you do. :)**_

Mal works herself to the _bone _arguing for more VKs to be brought over. She lets the blue in her hair shine through, purely by accident, because she simply doesn't remember to hold the glamour up most of the time. It isn't easy though- there are so many things that hadn't mattered when it was just four kids. The school fees could be written off as charity work, as could the cost of feeding them. Ben had invited her, Carlos, Evie and Jay to spend their summers and other vacations at his palace, but that wasn't feasible for the number of children she wanted to bring over.

Auradon Prep classes had to be rearranged to allow more time for Goodness 101, and there needed to be standardized placement tests for the students old enough to come to high school. There had to be remedial classes for those who didn't place, and they had to find a school willing to take the students that weren't high school-age. There needed to be a way to pay for their schooling and places to house them when they weren't at school. Some of them wanted to visit their parents on the Isle, and there had to be allowances made for that, too. Mal wouldn't have eaten or slept if it weren't for Ben and Carlos (Carlos, who felt more out of place than ever while Evie started her business and Jay lead the tourney and fencing teams to victory, had taken to spending time with the new Lady of the Court, and ended up sleeping in her bed most nights when Evie was working into the small hours of the morning and he couldn't be bothered to drag himself back to his room on the other side of campus).

Then again, it isn't only Mal who has a new workload. Evie's trying to build a steady income that she can donate to the new VKs, trying to buy places that she can fix up so that she can house them in the breaks. Ben's attending to the responsibilities of a king, as well as trying to bring all of Auradon to an agreement about the rest of the children from the Isle coming over. Carlos is trying to implement new infrastructure on the Isle for the people who can't (or won't) come over, and Jay spends his time working the public relations aspect, trying to prove to the entire world that they are harmless, that they are _good_.

And, in spite of all their efforts, they seem to be moving _backwards_ in terms of progress. It takes everything Mal has (and some she doesn't) to keep smiling politely when Ben's council try to tear her plans to pieces in an effort to _keep the villains where they're supposed to be_.

It takes nearly a year to wrangle everyone into a position where they agree to bring kids over to Auradon- and even then, there are checks and balances and compromises everywhere. The plan is so fragile that the slightest change will knock it all back to where they began. And they're only bringing _four kids_\- a "second trial run", Mal trying to prove that children don't deserve to be condemned and Auradon elite trying to prove that they do.

* * *

Mal is seventeen and she has the world on her shoulders.

Mal is seventeen and in sophomore year because her reading level wasn't good enough to begin her junior year when she came to Auradon.

Mal is seventeen and she's suddenly _engaged_\- it's almost too much, really.

* * *

The proposal is beautiful, if unexpected. And Evie, Carlos and Jay helped plan it- that's probably what's most surprising. Mal never planned on getting married, she never wanted children, because she was too busy to care for them, and too caring to bring more kids into life on the Isle. But _Evie, Carlos, and Jay helped Ben plan this_, so she says yes. Because it means that they've accepted that there's no chance of _them _again, that they've accepted that she's in love with Ben, too, and that it's safer for the Isle if she's with Ben.

So she says yes, because she's in love with Ben too, and she'd rather have some happiness than none at all. It's selfish, she thinks, even as she walks around accepting congratulations, that she can't find it in herself to let Ben love someone else, someone whose whole heart belongs to him. But now isn't the time to think about that, not when they're only hours away from the second trial run.

She smiles at Celia and hugs Dizzy close, and ruffles the twins' hair as they climb into the limousine. Things are going _well_.

So, of course, her father blows it all out of the water. Mal thinks about being a little girl at a god's knee and _whatever the hell we want_, and grits her teeth and lets the rage and magic always bubbling under her skin take her over, transforming her skin and cracking her bone to reform them. She's only turned into a dragon twice before, at the prompting of Carlos, who was the first one to suggest that it might be possible ("_maleficent's line have dragon's blood, mal. you should be able to do it too" she'd cracked a smile and asked if he was running out of experiments to try. His only response had been a cheeky wink_), so she's still unused to the way her muscles tear and stitch themselves back together. She thinks she catches a glimpse of shocked eyes under flaming hair as her pupils shift, but she can't be sure because Hades wastes no time in firing the first shot, and she can feel the way he's pulling the magic from her bones.

The fight is short, and she only wins when she thinks of how she felt when she defeated her mother, pulling that feeling of _pride_ and _triumph_ forward, pushing it outward and breaking Hades' spell.

But the damage is done.

* * *

Ben calls a council meeting. She's there in her new capacity as the future queen of Auradon, and in her less-than-official capacity of Queen of the Isle (no matter how many kids defer to her, she still doesn't have any _legal rights_ over the Isle). His parents are there, as well as several other prominent _heroes_. Sleeping Beauty and Prince Phillip, Jasmine and Aladdin, Snow White and Prince Florian, Hercules and Megara. Persephone, Zeus, and Poseidon. Audrey and her grandmother are present, too. Mal will never cease to be amazed at how that family manages to bend rules and laws to their benefit. How Beast _lets _them.

She's not shocked by Audrey's fury (_it's not just about hades, she thinks. it's about ben, and it's about a crown that mal isn't sure she wants- a crown audrey can never have_). She's not even shocked by Hercules' suggestion to seal the barrier, _permanently_. He has a son, and she knows, better than most, that gods get revenge on other gods' children. That doesn't mean she doesn't fight, though. She lets things like _dignity _and _diplomacy_ slip away, and she argues furiously for the future of _her people_.

Ben's on her side, but he is an elected monarch, like her. His family holds the throne of Auradon only until the heroes decide that it's no longer the best decision for Auradon. And she has no doubt that Queen Leah will push for her daughter to inherit the throne the moment she sees a weakness in the Villeneuve ranks.

"At _least_ let me bring the other kids over before sealing that barrier," Mal pleads to stoic faces, "they _don't deserve _to be punished for their parents' mistakes." She knows how sceptical the council is about the kids that are already here, but she can't let a year's worth of work go to waste, she _can't let these kids suffer_. She opens her mouth to continue, ready to _beg _if she must (_never owe anyone anything, mal, because that's no way for a fairy to live_) but Audrey beats her to it, spitting mad.

"_This_ is what you choose, Ben? Some _bitch _who cares more about the _criminals_ we've locked up- for good reason, by the way- than the people she's set to rule?" she whips around to face the rest of the council, voice hard and cruel (_a lump at the back of her throat and the lingering thought- I'd be better than her, I'd protect _**_us_**), "And you cowards will let her _ruin us_ because she makes you _feel good about yourselves_."

Sleeping Beauty goes to comfort her daughter (_to stop her from embarrassing them further_) but Audrey rips herself away from her mother and storms from the room, one final promise (_"I'll do it myself"_) shouted to the people behind her.

Mal's not too worried- Audrey has no magic, no way of following through on the veiled threat.

(_She should be_).

In the end, no matter how she begs, the council comes to the conclusion that she doesn't like- no more trips to the Isle. They can't bring the rest of the kids over, and the kids who are here can't go back (Mal doesn't _really _think they want to- except maybe Dizzy, whose grandmother has always loved her family more than anything and anyone else).

It's implied that she should stick around for the small talk that normally comes with these things, but she can't stand here and make nice with the people who would condemn an entire generation because they're _scared_. So she makes her excuses- she has to help the new kids settle in, she's late to meet with Carlos- and leaves as fast of possible. She can't make eye contact with anyone when she leaves, even as she feels the gaze of gods prickling the back of her neck. She hasn't said anything, and she won't- _can't_, even if she wanted to.

It's as she leaves that she registers a magic she never thought she'd feel again. It's acidic and cold and feels like it's making the air around her _rot_. It's the feel of her mother's magic. She whips around, searching frantically for her mother, muscles tensed and ready to fight. Instead, she finds Audrey holding her mother's staff. Her mother's staff, imbibed with her mother's magic and attitudes- dark and angry. The Audrey she sees before her isn't much more than a puppet for her mother's beliefs.

But then again, it's very much Audrey's feelings behind her actions- as Mal's hair twists into snakes and her features hardened into something familiar, Mal almost wants to laugh, because Audrey has _no idea _about her heritage, but the worst things she could think of was to curse Mal into being a _gorgon_. Into a creature of- the myths claimed, anyway- pure ugliness.

That's how Evie finds her, and she hisses at her to keep Jay and Carlos away because she's not trying to turn her best friends into stone. It's not hard to know what she has to do next, even though she _really, really_ doesn't want to. She, Evie, Carlos and Jay make their way over to the Isle, because she needs the ember to stop her curse, and undo whatever Audrey plans on doing next.

* * *

Not seconds after they land on the Isle, they're greeted by Uma, Harry and Gil. And they're not like they were _before_, but they're also not two seconds from knives being drawn, so Mal counts it as a win. She slips away as fast and quietly as she can, but Uma meets her eyes with a knowing glance, and Mal's pretty certain that all three of them know exactly where she's going. Uma doesn't keep secrets from her crew (_it's one of the reasons she's a better leader than Mal_).

She's never visited her dad before, but that doesn't mean she doesn't know how to get in. She still has half of her magic when she's on the Isle, and half is more than enough to unlock the gate to the mine he lives in.

She doesn't try to sneak in unnoticed. They may be on the Isle, but Hades is still a god, and she doubts she could actually get away with it. Instead, she walks in, head held high, and makes direct eye contact when she sees him.

He laughs.

"You know, I've got a whole bunch of bastards, but I don't think any of them have half your guts, Korë."

Her name echoes through the chamber and she shivers.

"I'm here for-"

"The ember, I know." she doesn't even bother to question how he knows these things anymore, not when she's met Persephone, who somehow still loves her husband, who would do anything for him- likely including communicating with him and breaking the laws of Auradon in the process.

He walks up to her, and she's struck by how tall he is. She's stopped growing and is tall as she's ever going to be, and he's still a foot taller than her. They're in tight quarters, and she has to bend over backwards to meet his eyes.

"But why _on earth _would I give you the artefact worth the power of a _god_?"

He yells the last words, and Mal thinks of the rumours, of Hades' fury at his brothers condemning him to a mortal lifetime without his powers. But she needs this- for her, and for Ben, and even for Audrey, who doesn't deserve to be a puppet in her parents' games.

"_Whatever the hell I want, right?"_

He laughs, then, and it's an ugly sound. He takes a step back, tossing the ember up into the sky and catching it again.

"You stuck with it, Korë, I'll give you that. Queen of the Isle, Queen of Auradon- am I invited to the wedding, by the way?" He asks, but he must know that the answer is a resounding _no_, so he continues with the same breath, "and now, the powers of _Hades_. I guess you are your father's daughter, no matter how much you may look like your mother." He raises his eyebrows at her, and she gets the hint, dropping the glamour to let blue hair and black eyes and _wings _shine through.

"How'd my wife take it when she saw you like that?" He asks, and if she didn't know better, she'd think he sounded _worried_. She raises an eyebrow at him.

"Don't you know?" she asks, and something dark fills his eyes for a second.

"_Korë_," he says, and it's a clear warning.

She shrugs.

"She took it fine, I guess. She didn't kill or curse me, so that's better than I was expecting," she can't pin the look on her father's face, but she might have called it _relief_.

"I didn't come here to make small talk," she reminds him, and he smirks, tossing the ember into the air again.

"I'll give you the ember," he agrees, and her eyes widen because she expected a _far _harder fight.

"On one condition."

Her hopes sink. She may not _know_ her father, but she knows the stories, and she doubts that this condition will be something she'll be able to fulfil (_she'll try anyway, because she's going to be their queen, and they deserve a queen who will fight for them until her dying breath_).

"I can't just _give _you the ember," he tells her, "think of my reputation. I'd be _ruined_." She rolls her eyes he may be a god, but he's trapped on the Isle just like all the other assholes who failed to conquer the world. It's sometimes hard to remember that he'll still be here when she's dust and the Isle is long gone.

"But you can earn it," he continues. There's a pause while he thinks before he smirks and declares, "A trial, I think. It's poetic justice. My brother's son had to prove he was worthy of being a god, and you shall have to prove the same."

"Most of the creatures he killed are- as things generally are after you kill them- already dead," she reminds her father, "And I'm not asking to be a _god_. I'm asking to save my people."

He hums noncommittally, "Yes, but I'm so _tired_ of Zeus bragging that his kids are always the _strongest_ and the _best_. I'd like my own bragging rights for a change." There's a spark in his eyes, and Mal knows that he's made up his mind. She won't be escaping this. So she squares her shoulders.

"Fine. But can we do this _quickly_? Audrey could be _hurting people_."

He just laughs at her, gently scolding, "Patience is a virtue, Korë." It's the fourth time he's used her true name in as many minutes, and it's been more than a year since she'd last heard it (_falling from the lips of his beautiful, furious wife_) and she flinches from it. Her movement must catch his eye, because he grins wide, and bares his teeth to the point that it's almost grotesque.

"There's your trial," he tells her. "You want the powers of a god? Fine. But you can't follow the rules of the fae too. _Break a Promise,_ _Korë, and I'll give you the ember_."

_Break a promise. _She's never even considered-

The far don't keep promises because they're **forced** to, they keep their promises because it's stupid not to. When you break a Promise, the person on the other end is well within their rights to demand your pound of flesh- sometimes literally.

Mal has only ever made three promises- one to her mother, which she's already kept, one to Queen Persephone, who Mal has no doubt would gleefully cut out her heart given the chance, and lastly, one to Ben- if she allowed him to kiss her, she would own his kingdom.

She looks up at her father through messy blue curls and makes an expression that's somewhere between a smirk and a snarl.

"Still want to be invited to the wedding?"

* * *

She approaches her gang slowly, well aware of Hades' presence behind her.

"E, I need you and Jay to take Uma and Harry and bring Ben here," she commands, leaving no room in her voice for argument.

"Mal, what-" her darling second-in-command tries to ask, but Mal interrupts.

"There's no time, but this is the only way to get the ember." She holds Evie's gaze, and the blue-haired girl nods, motioning to the others to follow her. Uma lingers for a second, scrutinizing Mal as though she holds the answers to the universe, but then turns to follow Evie without protest.

Mal takes the time they're gone to coach Carlos and her father through the traditional steps of a fae wedding.

Within the hour, though, their crew turns up with Ben (and Jane, for some reason) in tow.

She hugs Ben tightly, and it's all she can do to keep from kissing him. Instead, she whispers against his chest, "I don't want to do this," she tells him, "but we need to hurry up the wedding."

Ben, her darling Ben, doesn't even question it.

"What must I do?"

"Just stand over there, by Hades. I'll be there in a second."

"Uma, I'm trusting you to keep the peace," she tells the girl, and again, she's surprised when Uma just **goes** with it.

She, Carlos, Evie, and Jay walk a couple of meters away.

"Mal, you don't have to do this," Evie tells her, and she loves her for it, even though she **does. **

Her eyes must say something that she can't, because Evie just nods solemnly and kisses Mal's hand, clasped in her own.

Mal walks down the aisle Carlos's arm, in leathers and purple and looking nothing like a bride. She stops in front of Ben, and the ceremony begins.

"Who comes here to be wed on this day?" her father asks.

"Mal Bertha le Fay, a woman grown, and Queen of the Isle," she says, and she hopes her voice is shaking less than she is.

"Who gives her?"

"Carlos de Vil, of the Isle of the Lost." It's archaic, but these are the words that magic will recognize.

"Who claims her?"

"King Ben of Auradon, of the line Villeneuve."

"And do you accept this woman? " her father asks.

"I do," Ben's voice is strong and sure, and his eyes hold hers captive as he says it.

"Do you promise to love and honour her?"

"I do."

"And do you, Queen Mal, accept this man?" Her father asks, and she breaks her gaze to look at him. She's not sure, but from his expression, she'd say he's _happy_\- or at least, he's smug about this outcome.

"Yes," there's no feeling in the word, because she won't give him the satisfaction.

"Do you promise to honour and protect him?"

She pauses for a second, wondering if she's really going to go through with this. It's been _hours_ since she agreed to get engaged, and she wasn't even sure about that.

But then she looks at Ben, nervous and hopeful, and she knows there's only one answer she can give.

"I do."

"Then you may exchange rings."

Ben slides his ring onto her finger. Even years later, it's still-as her mother called it- a perfect fit.

"I am hers, and she is mine. From this day to the end of days," Ben recites the words that she hastily hisses at him.

She feels, more than hears, herself echo the sentiment as she gives him her family ring- it's made of black metal, in the shape of briars. The irony of ironies.

As soon as she's done, she feels the Claddagh burn its way onto the back of her left hand, the heart facing towards her wrist. The symbol of a married woman.

"Then you are married in the eyes of gods and men, and equals in everything. You may now kiss the bride," he tells Ben, and Mal smiles and kisses him first.

As soon as their lips meet, she has broken her promise. She can't take his kingdom from him, because it's already his. Their marriage vows, for all intents and purposes, had nullified the vows he had made to her that first time.

She hears Jay wolf whistle from somewhere behind her, and she laughs, tears in her eyes. She holds out her hand for the ember, and her father watches her for a second, his face revealing nothing.

Then he gives her the stone, bright blue and warm against her skin.

"Don't let it get wet," he warns her.

She nods solemnly, and turns, her other hand still in Ben's.

"Let's go," she says to her crew, but finds Uma, Harry and Gil in her way as she turns to leave.

"Uh uh, Queenie," Uma says, and her voice is cold, "We ran your fucking errands for you. We've been waiting for a _year_, and nothing's happened yet. You're not leaving this island until you _swear_ you'll get us off this godforsaken rock. All of us. You're our queen, but you care more about them."

"You shouldn't talk about her like that," Ben tries to insist, "She's your Queen twice over now- of the Isle and of Auradon." Uma just laughs at him.

"So, _your majesty, _what's it gonna be?" Nine sets of eyes bore into her, and she wants to shrink back from the responsibility these people have placed on her, but she's a _queen_ and that's not what queens do.

She considers, for a moment, what Uma's asking. Going against the council, risking other, true villains escaping. If she breaks this Promise, she has no doubt that Uma will demand the same price that Persephone would.

_Mal,_ her mother's voice says as she breathes in and closes her eyes. _Fae,_ she reminds herself. _You are fae. Your word is truth. Your Promises are always fulfilled._

_Korë,_ her father's name for her echoes through her mind as she exhales. _You are half-goddess_. _Don't forget_. _Never let anyone hold something over you_.

She opens her eyes.

"Every child currently on the Isle of the Lost will be given a chance to come to Auradon if it pleases them," she swears. Uma's eyes narrow and she completes her vow, "I _Promise_."

_She feels the weight of the Promise settle on her. Underneath her tongue, in her bones and her teeth. It thrums in her blood. She will keep this Promise, or she will die._

_She has come too far to die._


	5. all of my heroes die all alone

_**Seasons greetings to all! I hope you enjoy this, the final chapter of Korë. Consider it my Christmas present to you!**_

* * *

In the end, all nine of them go back to the mainland together. Mal silently commends Uma on her quick thinking- if she'd broken her promise and the sea witch was on the island, Uma wouldn't actually have a way to claim revenge. This way, Mal has to tread very carefully.

It isn't easy, though. It would've been hard enough trying to bring nine people back to Auradon on four bikes, and all of the bikes had been wrecked in the rush to bring Ben (and Jane) to the Isle. Eventually, Mal is forced to transform in order to carry everyone back without lowering the barrier entirely. And it _hurt_. The dragon transformation was entirely fae magic, and while she'd learnt how to channel godly powers to use fae magic long ago, those were generally small spells (glamours, and the like).

The ember helps her, but Mal would be happy to never have to attempt it again as long as she lived. It would be impossible to forget the feeling of hellfire in her veins as her bones snap and reform and her skin stretches and twists.

When she detranforms upon landing at Evie's cottage, she only barely has two legs again before she crumbles to her knees, vomiting. Ben {_her husband_} is behind her, whispering soothingly, and Evie, Carlos and Jay stroke the new stretch marks across her back and thighs and stomach and arms {_Uma, Gil, Harry and Jane stand a small distance away, eyes wide and terrified at the effects of magic being done when there was no magic to draw from (they have no way of knowing that Mal's reaction is just par for the course, no clue that transformation magics are just __**that awful**__)_}.

When Mal feels well enough to be moved, Ben scoops her up and carries her into the cottage (_it's one of the first ones Evie bought, and its sole purpose is to house the VKs_). Ben puts her down on the couch, between Dizzy and the twins. Celia is on the floor in front of Dizzy. They mumble in their sleep, and Mal's heart breaks for them.

"Shh! It's okay. Don't worry, Dizzy, we can fix this. And once we do, they're gonna let all the kids come from the Isle. So, happy dreams," Evie murmurs, and Mal has to look away. She can't think about the council, about her promise. She can't think about how she's going to make this work.

"So, what's the plan?" Evie asks, and Mal's brow furrows in confusion, "Plan?"

"Yeah, what are we gonna do next?" Uma adds, and Mal's eyes widen in fear.

"There's no _us_ in this. I'm going to find Audrey, break the curse, and restore Auradon, and you guys are gonna stay where it's _safe_, okay?"

"Mal-" Ben begins, but she cuts in.

"No. _This is not a conversation_, okay. I love you, _all of you_," she briefly catches Uma's eye, and she's not sure how to say _yes, even you, _ so she just continues, "none of you have magic. _None of you are safe when Audrey's around_. And I won't let her hurt you."

"Mal, you don't even know how to find Audrey," Jay tries to insist.

"You sure about that?" she asks, smirking.

The spell she uses is a simple one- she doesn't even need her spellbook. And the ember is more than suitable to act as a focus, so when she hisses the words- "_Wæfemess_ _Aethelthryth_" (_An enemy that hides from sight/who plots and schemes away from light/Her wicked plans I must now quell/By finding her position with a spell_)- the spell is so strong that not only does she _know_ where Audrey is, she can project a phantom image of her location onto a nearby mirror. She turns from the picture of the palace to everyone else.

"This is why I should go alone. Because _I_'m the only one who can do things like _that_. I'm the only one who can wield _this_," she says, holding up the ember.

"Mal, we _just_ made a promise," Ben pleads with her, "In good times and in bad, right?" They're not the vows from the fae wedding, but they're wedding vows nonetheless, and Mal's heart feels like it's tearing itself to pieces when she says, " I know. _I know_. But it's not safe for you out there."

She locks eyes with Uma.

"I'll keep my promise, but I _need_ to know you're all safe. I can't do this if I have to look after you."

"No, Queenie," Uma insists, "We do this together." She looks around at her crew, _her family_, and she understands that she's wasting time, but she doesn't want to do what she must. She begs like she never thought she would, one last time.

"Don't make me do this."

"Don't make us make you," Carlos argues, and she has to turn away because she can't watch their faces as she spells them.

"_Awefecung_."

Tears blur her vision as she walks out of Evie's cottage to the heavy sounds of bodies hitting the floor.

* * *

Most of the magic is done before Mal even sees Audrey. The spell she intends to use is so very complicated and older than humans themselves. It's a cruel spell, one her father had tried to use on her- god, was it _yesterday?_ A spell that drains all the magic (and then the life) from your body {_she hopes she's powerful enough to end the spell before she begins draining Audrey's life. She lives with that fact that she'll use the spell even if she doesn't know that she can_}. She calls on the gods as she recites fae chants mingled with Latin rituals and she hopes it's enough. She weaves flowers into her hair and hopes that her namesake will protect her even though she's her father's daughter.

She makes her way to the throne room, clutching onto the ember like it's a lifeline. The sleep spell will only last for so long, even with the power of the ember behind it- she's only _half_ Hades, after all.

"Audrey," she calls, even as she feels the searing pain of the dragon transformation creep up her legs {_she's holding it back by the skin of her teeth, letting that dangerous, painful magic simmer and bubble at her heels in case she needs it_}, "please, let me help you. This _isn't_ what you wanted, this is my _mother's_ magic controlling you." It's a futile attempt, really. Her mother would _never_ accept mercy, and Audrey _is_ her mother at the moment.

"I know," Audrey tells her, smirking as she stands up, "but isn't this _so much better_?"

Everything after that is a blur of pain. Mal concentrates on the spell, activating it even as Audrey cast her first blow. Mal stands her ground.

Their battle is less a battle and more a race against the clock. Mal stands still, hoping her hastily-constructed shield holds up as she directs all of her power and concentration into the ember and the spell she's casting. It's painful. At the same time, Audrey pushes forward through the use of brute force, and as Mal's spell strengthens, she slows.

Mal isn't sure if there will be enough time for her to finish the spell in its entirety before Audrey breaks through her shield.

There isn't.

Audrey fires two spells in a row, and the first shatters her shield. The seconds cuts deep into her soul, shocking her with the pain it creates. It feels as though Audrey has left a giant laceration across her chest, even as she looks down and sees no blood.

Audrey lifts the staff to cast the killing blow and Mal finishes her spell barely a second before.

Audrey falls to the ground, and Mal tries to break the spell, but it's still growing and she doesn't know _how_.

Her concentration shatters as Jay, Evie, Ben and Carlos come rushing through the great doors, and she drops the ember. There are burn marks on her palms (_and her heart_), but Audrey is stabilizing under Carlos's care and _she's done it_.

She gladly greets the darkness that overwhelms her.

* * *

At first, when Mal wakes up, all there is, is _joy_. The joy that she's alive, that Audrey's not dead, that she's married, that she won't have to fight, ever again (_she's wrong, on that last count_).

But within Jayof her awakening, she needs to attend council meetings (_she insists that Evie, Ben and Carlos come along, insisting that she'll name them Personal Advisors to the Queen of Auradon if she must. Adam, who doesn't like to talk about that fact that she and Ben had a rushed, fae wedding on the Isle, agrees_), where they're debating if Audrey should be sent to the Isle {_Audrey, who's still asleep, who likely won't ever wake up. Mal thinks about telling them that Hades could revive her, and doesn't. She's never been good, after all. Not like they want her to be. And Audrey's been a thorn in her side for the longest time_}. Even when Mal speaks for her, they're still debating. And that's when she realizes that they're not debating whether Audrey is _evil_ enough to be sent to the Isle, they're debating if it's worth opening the barrier again.

_As in, they still won't allow her to bring the rest of the Isle's children over._

"Ladies and gentlemen," she says, and her voice cuts through the din of the argument. The heroes fall silent.

"I've made a promise to bring all of the children over from the Isle," she tells them, "I can't turn my back on the Isle. We can't live in fear… because it doesn't actually protect you from anything. You never know where the bad is gonna come from. And you never know where the heroes are gonna come from either."

"There are no heroes on the Isle!" Aurora snarls. The heroes echo her viciously.

"Without Hades, you would all still be cursed," Mal argues, "And that's why I can't be Queen of just Auradon. I have to be Queen of the Isle, too. And it's time that we take the barrier down. _Forever_."

"Mal, we can't do that," Ben whispers softly, "I _know _that he's your father, but-" Evie, Carlos and Jay's eyes flash over to her. Maybe she's never _told_ them the truth of her parentage, but they've known for _years_. And they're all aware that if she's not talking about it, it's for a reason.

"_How do you know that?" _Mal says, over the shouts of the heroes.

"It's on your birth certificate," Ben frowns, "I saw it when I was organizing to bring you here."

"That's not the point," he continues, shaking his head, and Mal can't find her voice to tell him that _it is the point now, because it's supposed to be a __**secret**_.

"Mal, we can't release the people on the Isle of the Lost. They're criminals."

"_Then_ _I'm a criminal_," Mal hisses, "_and you should throw me back in there with them._"

The other VKs agree passionately.

"Mal, we wouldn't do that," Ben insists, and fury bubbles under her skin.

"What, because I'm _one of your own_?" She asks, and he doesn't have an answer for her.

She nods because really, she knew it all along.

"Don't make me do this," Mal begs him for the second time in a matter of _days_. "Please, Ben. The Isle of the Lost is _wrong_, and you know it."

"Adam, control your son and his _wife_," Prince Florian demands of the Beast.

Jay turns to face him, furious, a growl in the back of his throat. Prince Florian steps back.

"The Isle system is majorly flawed," Evie declares, "And a major human rights violation."

"People should be locked up if they commit crimes, " Ariel argues.

"Yes," Mal takes over, "but they should also be given a chance to reintegrate into society. And children shouldn't be punished for the crimes of their parents." She turns to face Ben, and they're so close that their foreheads are touching.

"You know I'm right," she whispers.

Ben searches her face for -something- before turning to face the council, all _irate _at the very thought of being responsible for a human rights violation_._

"I stand with the Queen," he tells them. "Mal's right. And I'll do _anything_ to make this right."

"We won't vote on it," Queen Leah insists, "We won't willingly bring about the destruction of the United States of Auradon, as you seem so keen to do."

Mal nods. She didn't expect any less from them. She looks across Jay, Evie, Carlos, and Ben. She sees the decision that they make, almost in perfect unison, and her heart wants to _burst_ because she loves them so much and she couldn't do this without _all of them _at her side. _Whatever the hell you want_, her father had told her, and she _knows_ that this was, somehow, what he was talking about.

"Fine," she says, "we'll do it ourselves."

She walks out of the councilroom, hand-in-hand with her husband, with Evie, Carlos and Jay around them.

* * *

A preview:

_"My congratulations on your recent nuptials," the Queen of the Underworld says to her. It's mid-winter, and Persephone's skin is so pale it's translucent. Mal can see her skull below her cheeks, "although, I was disappointed that I couldn't be there myself. But then again, it was rather rushed, wasn't it, Korë? I wonder why that was." Her smile says she already knows._

_"I don't want to play this game with you," Mal says, pressing Ben closer into her side, "what do you want?"_

_"I just wanted to give my well-wishes," she obfuscates, "and commend you on breaking Aphrodite's heart so thoroughly."_

_"What's that supposed to mean?" Ben questions defensively. The hair at the back of Mal's neck stands on end, and Mal knows what's coming before Persephone gets a word out, but she's powerless to stop it._

_"Only that she thought- we all did, really- that her majesty would end up with those three," she points a bony finger at Carlos, Evie, and Jay, who are just out of hearing range, seemingly bent over a map, but really poised to strike, should Mal give the signal._

_"I- I don't-" Mal stutters, and the Queen of the Dead smiles serenely as she walks off, calling over her shoulder, "consider that my revenge", before fading out of sight._


	6. Burning Cities and Napalm Skies

**Book 2: Maleficent**

* * *

The power of the fey and the gods crack in her bones and, with certainty, she knows four things:

Her mother is dead.

Her father is free.

She has won.

She has never been more alone.

Mal made a decision that would start a war, and now she has to pay the price.

* * *

It hadn't been Mal's intention to start a war.

No, really.

Her threat to the council had sounded like it, sure, but she seriously never thought it would get this far. She'd thought- ignorantly, looking back on it- that the council would crack. But she'd underestimated the strength of their desire to hold onto power.

So she's found herself- along with 80-odd kids who are in favour of a regime change- barricaded inside Auradon palace.

{_At first, they hadn't been barricaded in. They'd been living there, mostly peacefully (though not without tension) with Ben's parents, Uma, Harry, Gil, and the four new VKs._

_Then the council had returned their threat with a threat of their own- removing them from their positions if they didn't drop the concept of freeing the Isle immediately._

_They had also demanded that Uma's crew and Dizzy, Squirmy, Squeaky, and Celia be removed back to the Isle. The council's decision was that four kids was enough to spare their souls. That the rest would be damned._

_After that, things had spiralled out of control pretty fast. Mal and Ben had invited some like-minded friends- like, Jane, like Lonnie, like Doug- over so that they could discuss the options available to them, but Ben's parents had panicked and secretly informed the council._

_She had been forced to ask them to leave- just for a couple of hours- so that her side could discuss their position in peace. Belle and Adam had responded by bringing Auradonian troops to force them out, and Mal's magic had reacted, sealing __**her**_ _people into safety with a barrier similar to the one encircling the Isle. Too similar, when the only difference was that this one was to keep people out, not in._

_Of course, the barrier didn't keep everyone out- Mal had more control over her magic than __**that**__. The magic was permeable, allowing people who needed help to receive it, and welcoming like-minded individuals with open arms_}.

Unfortunately, there wasn't really anywhere to _go _from here (both literally and figuratively). The Council of Auradon wouldn't accept anything less than complete submission to their rules, and she and Ben refused to let Auradon's cruelty go unchecked any longer.

She's floated the idea of just stepping back from their positions peacefully, but Evie pointed out the major flaw in that plan- if they stepped down, they had no leverage.

This all led them to where they were now, locked inside the palace, the main hall converted into a pseudo-dormitory, low on supplies, and the group that Mal was calling a war council {_Mal Evie Carlos Jay Ben Uma Harry Gil Celia Jane Lonnie Doug Chad_} holed up in the Map Room twenty-four/seven.

Because not only did _all_ palaces apparently have _map rooms_, but the ones in Auradon were created with a terrifying mix of magic and technology- and so they can watch from the comfort of the palace as Adam paces around the spare bedroom of the Charmings' palace, and Jafar tries to make a sale to Freddie Facilier and Anthony Tremaine fucks Mad Maddy behind Ursula's Fish and Chips.

It's such an invasion of privacy that Mal can't think about it for too long without feeling physically ill {_but the maps are their greatest ally, at the moment, and so she bears it even when she makes eye contact with Carlos who is as pale as she feels with the terror of what they mean about Auradon_}.

So here they stand, watching Ben's parents amass their forces outside the palace and wondering if Mal's magic will hold.

"We could call parley," Uma suggests, but Ben's shaking his head before she can finish her sentence.

"The council has already given their terms- a complete surrender. They won't agree to meet with us unless we come bearing a white flag."

"That's bullshit," Celia argues, "this is a _war_, and that's not how you go about a diplomatic solution."

"It's not a war to them, though," Lonnie explains, "We're just a bunch of kids acting out, to them. They won't take us seriously unless we _force_ them to. As far as they're concerned, we don't have enough _experience_ to have actual opinions."

Mal listens silently to the debate, and somewhere deep inside of herself, she misses the Isle- because on the Isle, people took her seriously or they got _hurt_ and wasn't that _so much simpler_?

She rubs soft circles across her temples, pushing the blue hair that she's grown too lazy to hide out of her eyes.

She stares at the marker that says _Maleficent_, back in Ben's parents' room, and wonders what her mother would do about this.

She stares at the marker on the Isle of the Lost labelled ᾍδης and _knows_ that her father is laughing at her- queen of two worlds and locked in one room.

{_The names revealed are based on true, deep magic. So Mal's name appears as Κόρη, even when she doesn't speak Greek and doesn't go by her given name. The map is __**dangerous**_}.

She walks away from the map to lean against the nearest wall. Jay comes to stand next to her. The discussion of their next moves continues without even a pause.

"You know, as our queen, you're supposed to be providing solutions," he tells her, but his tone is light and she knows he's joking.

"Honestly, I'm not sure anyone would actually listen to me," Mal says wryly, "I led you into this mess, after all."

"You didn't force us to follow you," Jay tells her, "we followed you because it was the right thing to do. Because we _love_ you." There's a pause.

"...Some of us more than others."

"_Jay_," she breathes, and her chest aches.

"I know you're happily married, your grace. But that won't stop us-" he doesn't need to tell her who he's referring to- "from loving you for the rest of our lives."

"Why would you tell me this?" Mal asks him, trying to swallow the tears that are clogging her throat.

"I don't know." He looks pensive.

"Maybe I thought you looked like you needed it, Korë." He's never called her by her given name before, and it sends shivers down her spine.

She's staring at him and contemplating doing something _very stupid_ {_like maybe kissing him with her husband just inches away_} when she feels a shudder run through the forcefield and Uma calls out to her- "Uh, Queenie, there's a new name in the main room. And it's Greek."

Mal leans over to catch a glimpse of the map recognizes the name that has appeared in the throne room- _Περσεφόνη._ _Persephone_.

Her eyes widen as the kids in the main hall gather around the goddess, and blinks out of the map room- _she isn't going to let this woman- this goddess- take revenge for something Mal hadn't even __**done**_ _on Mal's people_.

"Your grace," she calls out to Persephone.

When the woman turns, she doesn't look angry. She kisses the nearest child {_Artie_} on the forehead and rises gracefully, walking over to Mal with such calm and purpose that Mal wonders if these will be her last moments.

"It's good to see you, Mal," she says, and Mal is once again reminded that, above everything, Persephone _doesn't want people to know about her husband's infidelity_.

{_A bit too late for that, she thinks- _

"_**Mal, we can't do that," Ben whispers softly, "I know that he's your father, but-" Evie, Carlos and Jay's eyes flash over to her. Maybe she's never told them the truth of her parentage, but they've known for years. And they're all aware that if she's not talking about it, it's for a reason.**_

"_**How do you know that?" Mal says, over the shouts of the heroes.**_

"_**It's on your birth certificate," Ben frowns, "I saw it when I was organizing to bring you here."**_}

"And you as well, Queen Persephone," Mal responds, eyes flickering back to the kids {_some of them are probably older than Mal, but Mal is their queen and their protector and they're __**her kids**_}.

"Perhaps we should sojourn to somewhere a bit more private?" Mal suggests. There's probably enough steel in her voice to forge a broadsword, but she's not really keen on giving her step-mother an option here.

"I think that that would be acceptable," Persephone agrees, as Ben appears at the top of the staircase. The queen's eyes settle on him heavily for a moment, before she turns back to Mal, "I've always been _so curious_ about Auradon maps- perhaps the map room?"

It's not a suggestion, it's a command, and Mal nods silently, offering her arm to escort the queen. Persephone takes her arm without fuss, but her grip is so tight it's nearly painful. As they approach the room, Uma, Harry, Gil, Celia, Jane, Lonnie, Doug, and Chad are quickly making their way out. Mal raises her eyebrows silently, but thanks a higher power that's _not_ her parents that Ben thought ahead enough to keep Evie, Carlos and Jay in the room.

In the map room, Persephone seems to lose interest in Mal entirely, wandering around the room and inspecting everything {_Mal acted similarly the first time __**she**_ _was in the Map Room, which is so thickly saturated with magic that it feels like it's choking you_}.

"My congratulations on your recent nuptials," the Queen of the Underworld says to her, from her position staring at the map of the underworld up on the wall. Mal, in turn, is staring at her. It's mid-winter, and her skin is so pale it's translucent. Mal can see her skull below her cheeks.

"Although, I was disappointed that I couldn't be there myself. But then again, it was rather rushed, wasn't it, Korë? I _wonder _why that was." Her smile says she already knows.

"I don't want to play this game with you," Mal says, reaching out to take Ben's hand from somewhere nearby behind her and pressing him into her side, "what do you want?"

"I just wanted to give my well-wishes," she obfuscates, "and commend you on breaking Aphrodite's heart so _thoroughly_."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ben questions defensively. The hair at the back of Mal's neck stands on end, and Mal knows what's coming before Persephone gets a word out, but she's powerless to stop it.

"Only that she thought- we all did, really- that _her majesty_ would end up with those three," she points a bony finger at Carlos, Evie, and Jay, who are just out of hearing range, seemingly bent over a map, but really poised to strike, should Mal give the signal.

"I- I don't-" Mal stutters, and the Queen of the Dead smiles serenely as she walks off to a different corner of the room.

"Come now, Korë, the fae don't lie. Although, you _did_ promise me that no one else would find out about your parentage, and you broke that one _very_ thoroughly, didn't you?"

"I swore that no one would ever find out that I'm Hades' daughter _from me_," Mal corrected, "Ben already knew, and _he _told the council. That's not my fault."

"But you can't prove that, can you, Korë?"

"The burden of proof isn't on me," Mal argues, and Evie's knuckles are white against the table and Jay's inching towards his pocket knife. She needs to diffuse the situation, _now_.

"I can't make everyone forget my parentage, but I'll make it up to you," she says, and it's not a Promise, not quite, but it's too close for comfort.

"That's exactly what I want you to do though," Persephone tells her coolly, "make them all forget."

"I _can't_," Mal argues, "that- that would undermine _everything _I stand for now. I- I won't do it."

Persephone stares at her for so long that Mal wonders if the woman is completely awake, before abruptly turning away again, walking to a small fainting couch that they'd moved to the left wall a couple of days after they occupied the room and people kept falling asleep where they stood. She sits down and her skirts spread around her, pitch black and so smooth they look like they might be liquid.

There's another bone-chilling silence, and Carlos abandons all forms of pretence to come and stand next to her, taking her other hand in his.

"A woman who stands by her convictions," Persephone says, so softly it's only a whisper, "I can't respect that." It sounds more like she's telling herself than Mal. She sighs, and Mal feels guilty again. She really _tried_ to keep her parentage from getting out, because no matter how much of a bitch Persephone is, how much Mal is _terrified _by her, she doesn't deserve the scorn that she'll receive from the other Olympians.

"A choice, then," Persephone says, mostly to herself. She looks at Mal, and her irises glow red-hot.

"I get bored of not seeing my husband," Persephone says, "it's _winter_, and this is supposed to be our time together, but he's trapped on that godforsaken Isle-"

"I'm already working to get everyone off the Isle," Mal argues, fear clawing up her throat.

"For fuck's sake, let me _finish, _Korë," the Queen of the Underworld snaps. The red in her eyes crawls through the veins around them, and she is a terrifying sight, "I _know_, and that's part of this deal. When you get him off the Isle, I'm not particularly interested in spending my reunion with him trying to fix the absolute _mess_ that Hell has become in his absence."

Mal can't, for the life of her, understand where Persephone is going with this.

"So, I think that this is a fair way for you to work off your debt to me, don't you? You take over the general running of hell for as long as your father and I think necessary."

"That could be a hundred years," Mal argues, "I have obligations on Earth, too. I can't just take over when I get my father out, _because I'll still have a war to win_."

"I've already given you a choice, Korë. Don't be _selfish_." The satisfied smile that's curling across Persephone's face tells Mal that the Queen of Hell knows _exactly_ how precarious the rock and the hard place that Mal's balanced between are and can't wait to see which one hurts her more.

"But I can be generous too," Persephone says, "I won't make you decide right now. You have a week."

"I'll expect your answer by midnight on Sunday. Don't disappoint me," she warns, and Mal won't. She doesn't know what the punishment will be, if she doesn't choose, but it can't be good.

The woman stands and strides over. Mal's expecting her to hit her, maybe, but instead, Persephone draws her into a tight embrace.

"You'll make the right choice," she whispers in Mal's ear, and then she lets go and strides towards the door, fading from the world as she goes.

* * *

"We can find another way," Evie argues, "there's no way that you _have_ to violate everyone like that. Like, what if everyone just _pretends_ that they don't remember."

Mal laughs bitterly, "E, I love you, but can you really imagine the council of Auradon agreeing to lie to Persephone to protect _me_?"

The five of them are in Ben's room. It's where he and Mal are officially sleeping at the moment, although sometimes one (or both) of them will find themselves in a sleeping bag in the main hall with everyone else.

Evie is sitting on the bed with Jay, and Carlos and Ben are hanging out on the lounge suite nearby. Mal stares out of the full-wall window at the palace grounds, saying nothing.

"I reckon Persephone might be able to figure it out anyway," Carlos contends, "I mean, she's a goddess, right? She's probably got a pretty good grasp on whether magic was really used."

"This is _bullshit_," Jay interrupts, furious, "and you _don't have to do this, Mal_."

Mal turns away from the window.

"Are we sure about that, though?" she asks, trying to keep the tremor from her voice {_she fails_}.

"Because Persephone is a goddess I made a _Promise_ to, guys. And I won't risk any of you because I won't compromise my _morals_." {_she's scoffing, and for good reason. For years, she didn't __**have any morals**__. This decision would be much easier if she had to make it three years ago, and Persephone knows that_}.

"We haven't considered the other option," Ben offers.

"What do you mean?" Mal asks, sharp.

"I... just… how bad would it be if you had to run the Underworld?" Mal flinches back, eyes hard.

"I know our marriage has been a rushed mess, Ben, but there are easier ways to get rid of me than offering me up to _Hell_."

"That's not what I'm _saying_," his voice is cold now, too, "Jesus Christ, Mal. I don't know anything about the Underworld. I'm just asking if it would be impossible for you to- fuck, I don't know- do _both_?"

Mal runs a hand down her face, walking over to join Evie and Jay on the bed. She rests her head in Jay's lap and her feet in Evie's {_it look so domestic, so natural, and Ben wonders about the truth to what Persephone said, earlier_}.

"Persephone didn't give me the second option to be _kind_. And she wouldn't have made the offer if it didn't hurt me _somehow_. She's furious, that people know, and I don't really blame her."

"I'm sorry," Ben says, voice cracking, "I never meant to hurt you."

Mal all but shoots up from where she's sitting, striding across the room again to sit with Ben.

"No, baby, no. You didn't know. I didn't even know it was on my birth certificate. This _isn't your fault_," she assures him, and she wonders if he believes her when his eyes flicker closed to hide what he's feeling.

"_Ben_," she insists, hands holding his face so that she can look into his eyes, "this was _bound_ to happen. And this fucking _sucks_, but I promised, remember. To honour and protect you. Equals in everything. And I _love_ you."

It's the truth, and that's why she says it, even though she feels Carlos flinch behind her {_and her heart aches but there's no winning here, for her, so what can she do but take small comforts where she can get them_}.

"I love you too," Ben whispers against her lips, and he presses a soft, warm kiss to her lips, and she can _feel_ how he's pouring all of his love for her into it, and she tries to respond in kind.

"Okay, lovebirds, break it up," Jay calls out from the bed and Ben blushes and Mal hunches her shoulders to protect herself from the feelings of guilt that threaten to overwhelm her.

"Sorry," Ben mutters, but there's a soft smile curling over his lips.

{_Mal loves him, even though her life's a mess and she thinks her life would've been much easier if he'd never tried to remove her from the Isle._

_She loves Evie, Carlos, and Jay too, even though she's promised to __**not**_ _love them for the rest of her life and she doesn't know how to go forward with them when she can't touch them like she wants to_}.

"We'll figure this out," he tells Mal, and she wishes she could believe the absolute confidence in his voice.


	7. You Really Know How to Make Me Cry

Evie wants to call a vote- argues that if all of their kids agree, Mal should wipe their memories. Mal had forgotten about how ruthless Evie could be while they were in Auradon and there was no reason to be ruthless. But now they're at war, and Evie's most dangerous qualities are out to play.

Mal refuses though. Erasing memory is a violation of privacy that she won't dare to try- the last time it had been on Ben and she'd never forgive herself for that, even though she'd failed {_Return it- Reverse it- _

_Are you trying to spell me right now?!_}

The days tick by, and it's really too soon and it's suddenly Sunday afternoon and Mal still hasn't made a decision. That's when she finally brings it to the War Council.

"You should've told us sooner." Is all Uma says, and somehow that's worse than anything Mal could've expected. Because Uma is furious at Persephone, she can see from the way it's sparking behind her eyes, but her disappointment with Mal is winning out.

"I know, and I'm sorry." There's nothing else for Mal to say, not really. She _is _sorry. She _should_ have told them sooner.

"What are we going to do?" Lonnie asks, and Mal winces.

"You don't know," Gil says, and it's a statement of fact. "That's why you're telling us now; because you need to give your answer and you don't have one." Gil has a way of cutting through the bullshit everyone else tries to put forward. Mal wishes he didn't.

"We have a couple of options-" Ben breaks in trying to defend her. She wonders if it's possible to love anyone more than she loves him {_her love for Evie, Carlos and Jay is a different kind of love, borne of pain and trials and she refuses to compare them anymore_}.

"But you don't like any of them, if you're talking to us," Uma says, "we're supposed to be _on the same fucking side._ We can't be on the same side if you keep shit like this from us. That makes you just as bad as Auradon." She holds Mal's gaze, and Mal believes her.

There's an echoing silence in the room. Mal can't look at anyone as she says, "I'm being _selfish._ I should just accept Perephone's deal. Auradon will be fine without me. You will all be fine without me."

"_No!_" Several of them cry, but she only hears Carlos, Jay and Evie.

"I won't let you do that," Evie tells her. "You've sacrificed too much for us already." {_She doesn't say it, but Mal knows that she means more than her power on the Isle and her mother and her anonymity- Evie means __**them**__, means their relationship and her marriage and she can't think of her marriage as a sacrifice because if she does she'll spiral and she'll hate her husband and her life and herself and she has a war to win_}.

"What other options do we have?" Mal means it as rhetorical, but to her surprise, someone responds.

"What if you say you'll take over and then just… _don't_. Like, let the Underworld go to shit. Who gives a fuck?" Celia says, and she appreciates the sentiment behind it, but-

"She'll extract a Promise out of me tonight, that I'll follow through on whichever option I choose," Mal tells him. "Breaking that Promise is paramount to death."

"Okay," Jane says, "okay. But what if you say you'll do it and then just- don't free him?"

"Mal may be the Queen," Uma interrupts, "But I'll hold her to her Promise too. _Every child currently on the Isle of the Lost will be given a chance to come to Auradon if it pleases them_. I won't sacrifice those kids for you, Queenie. You're not that important."

Mal wouldn't sacrifice those kids for her well being either. They're going in circles- she's already had all of these options, and already rejected all of them.

"I agree with Uma," she tells them. "There's no _way_ we're leaving kids on the Isle so that I don't have to keep a promise."

"So we don't leave the kids on the Isle." Surprisingly, it's Chad, of all people, who speaks up. His brow is creased and his voice is quiet, but his shoulders are squared and he sounds sure.

"How could we do that?" Uma asks, shaking her head and ready to reject him as another Auradonian who doesn't know what they're talking about. Chad shrugs.

"I don't know. But if Mal promises to take over the Underworld once Hades is freed, and then frees everyone except Hades- Persephone can't hold her to her promise."

Mal is pretty sure that everyone's just _staring _at Chad. It's probably the smartest thing he's ever said. He shrugs again.

"When you're tricking people into doing things for you, you get pretty good at wording things right." He shrinks back into himself after that, and Mal wants to thank him but doesn't know how.

"How do we do that, though?" Harry asks. "Hades is a _god_." Like they need the reminder.

Mal stares at the map, watching the names within the palace drift around slowly as their owners move. Her eyes drift up to the master bedroom.

"I have an idea."

She meets everyone's eyes, one at a time, and for the first time, she thinks she sees _fear _in them. It's bone-chilling.

The War Council goes down to the throne room, and she explains her idea, slowly, clearly, taking her time and letting people offer up their own ideas, spells and magic. She tells them exactly what's at stake, what will happen if they fail and what will happen if they succeed.

Then they take a vote.

It's 84-for, none against, with five abstainers {_she, Evie, Carlos, Jay and Ben are too close to this_}.

* * *

Persephone is waiting outside the barrier. She doesn't need to- she's melted right through it before. This is her trying to show respect for Mal right before she destroys her life.

"Come in, your grace," Mal says, and her voice is bitter. They might have a plan, but that doesn't mean that Mal isn't _furious_ that they were put in this position in the first place. Persephone steps through the barrier like it's water, and Mal feels the pain of being unable to protect her people _burn_ within her.

This is why she can't leave them- because she's the only defence between them and a world that is far too magical for them. And they're targets of this world because of her.

"I take it you've made a decision." Maybe, in another time, Mal would have described her voice as beautiful, but now it's harsh and cruel and Mal thinks it may be the ugliest thing she's ever heard {_and she's heard her friends' screams of fear more times than she can count_}.

"I'll take over if I manage to free him," Mal says, and she's playing with fire because she knows that Persephone isn't stupid enough to fall for old fey tricks but it's worth a shot.

The queen raises an eyebrow in a challenge- _you really thought that would work?_\- but all she says is, "Will you accompany me around the gardens?"

Mal agrees, albeit reluctantly, and she then embarks on the most awkward walk of all time. Persephone is clinging to her arm, but deathly silent. They walk for almost a mile, by Mal's estimation, before she speaks again.

"Now that we're out of range of your spies, Mal, do you really want to do this? Think of everything you're _abandoning_. Isn't this crueller than what I asked of you in the first place?"

Mal blinks at her silently, and the Queen sighs.

"Well, if this is your choice, so be it. I'd like a Promise, Korë."

"What would you like me to say?" Mal asks placidly. She's not promising this woman anything more than she's forced to.

"I want you to _promise_ that you'll take over the running of the Underworld when Hades is freed from the Isle of the Lost."

Mal stares for a moment, letting the words wriggle around. Persephone watches her, and Mal wonders how long they stay like that.

Eventually, she breaks the silence.

"If I free Hades from the Isle of the Lost, I will take over the running of the Underworld until he returns," she says, slowly, making sure she says what she means, and that she means what she says.

"I Promise." She feels her magic and Persephone's working together to bind her promise into her life force. It's suffocating, but she lets it happen. _This is my only choice_, she reminds herself.

Persephone examines her for another moment longer.

"That was easier than I expected," she tells Mal, "I _do_ hope you're not trying to play me for a fool, Korë, because it won't work." Mal keeps her smile as serene as she can. She's not sure that it's working, but then Persephone is gone- disappeared within a second.

She walks back to the palace as slowly as possible, not looking forward to the next phase of her plan. Wondering what she'll do if it doesn't work.

If her mother won't agree.

* * *

The magic to turn her mother from a lizard back to a fae is fairly simple. The magic to turn her mother from a lizard to a regular, magic-free human and _hold_ her that is a whole lot more complicated.

She lights a circle of candles around the room and makes Ben create a circle of iron around her and her mother (it's mostly made of pokers and other small pieces of iron they could find around the palace).

She begins her chant, letting the magic fill her body.

_Wiðercweðan hrycg æfter dôð morðor duru, hlêoðrian æt ðêah treddian forðrihte ðe._

_Wiðercweðan hrycg æfter dôð morðor duru, hlêoðrian æt ðêah treddian forðrihte ðe._

_Wiðercweðan hrycg æfter dôð morðor duru, hlêoðrian æt ðêah treddian forðrihte ðe._

{_To the others in the room, it sounds like a cheesy nursery rhyme- "Come back through the Mortal door, assemble flesh and walk once more"- Mal loves them, but she'll protect her family's spells from even them_}.

Seeing her mother is worse than she had thought it would be. Her mother is still terrifying, even without horns and wings and pitch-black eyes. And the pained shriek she lets out as she realises that she is _human_, that she is the one thing she hates the _most_, reminds Mal of days without food and being told to balance on one leg for hours at a time and being beaten if she failed.

"What do you _want_, daughter?" she asks, and her voice is bitter. Mal can't blame her, really. She'd rather _die_ than be _human_.

"To make you a deal," Mal tells her, and Maleficent's eyes snap to hers.

"What could you _possibly _want with me?" she asks, "Considering that fact that _you_ abandoned _me_."

"I chose a different path," Mal argues, "one that didn't involve genocide and enslaving everyone in Auradon."

"_Weak_," Maleficent snarls, "You chose the _weak_ path." Mal doesn't rise to the bait, no matter how badly she wants to.

"I can drop the transformation right now," she tells her mother, "and we don't have to do this."

"We do, though," her mother argues, "because you wouldn't turn to me unless you were _really_ desperate. You forget that I know you, Mal, inside and out."

Her mother is the only one who doesn't use the given name her father chose {_this is because Maleficent gave Mal a second name when she __**made her fey**__, and she refuses to acknowledge any other part of Mal's lineage_}.

Mal nods once but remains silent. Maleficent glances around her cage.

"Clever, using iron, even though you brought me back human. You did your research, daughter." Her eyes catch on the people Mal has strategically placed around the room, at the most powerful points of the design she had drawn on the floor.

"I see they're still around," she says, gesturing to Evie, Jay, and Carlos, "I'm not surprised. I'm more surprised that you invited _her_ back-" she jerked her head towards Uma, "-and that the Princeling is still around. What, did you promise to _love him forever_?"

Maleficent is trying to hit her where it hurts, but Mal won't let her.

"Something like that", she tells her mother, rubbing the Claddagh on the back of her hand. Her mother's eyes catch on the movement, and _rage _burns behind her eyes.

"You promised yourself to a _mortal_?" Her mother seethes, "not even one of _them_? You idiot girl. You could've had a witch or a djinn, but you choose a human prince? You sacrifice hundreds of years of fey lineage, the sacrifices I had to make to make you _half-god_, for a _boy_?"

Mal lets her rage, lets her yell and scream in fury. For once in her life, _she_ has all of the power over her mother, and she has a _goal_. She's not going to give that up, not even to defend her husband.

Over time, Maleficent calms down, and Mal tilts her head curiously.

"Are you done?"

"What do you _want_?" Maleficent asks again, and Mal relents.

"I want you to help me bring down the barrier," Mal tells her, and Maleficent _laughs_.

"In case you've forgotten, daughter dearest, I tried to do that, _years_ ago. _You_ _stopped me_. What do you _want_?"Maybe Maleficent thinks that asking Mal a third time will compel Mal to answer truthfully. Maybe it does.

"I want to let the kids off the Isle while leaving the adults there," Mal says, "and I'll let you stay human if you help."

"Why the _fuck_ would I want to be human?" Maleficent asks, but there's a tremor in her voice and Mal knows she's got her.

"Because you don't want to go back to being a _lizard_," Mal says {_threatens_}.

What follows is possibly the loudest silence Mal has ever heard. It ticks past, and time fades away.

"I'll do it," Maleficent tells her.

"_Promise me_," Mal insists, and they're both remembering the same thing- Maleficent gripping her arm too tight, and '_Promise me you'll steal the wand'_. Mal shoves a scrap of paper at her, where she's written the vow she wants Maleficent to say {_the War Council had sat for hours stewing over the exact words and phrases they wanted to use. Chad had been the one to come up with the final answer_}.

"I promise that I will help get all the children off the Isle of the Lost, while leaving the condemned villains there, in exchange for being allowed to stay human," her mother says.

The deal is struck.

Maleficent will help them win this war, or she will die.

She has survived too long to die.

* * *

They stand in a circle. There are 13 of them, holding hands {_Mal, Maleficent, Jay, Doug, Ben, Carlos, Uma, Jane, Harry, Lonnie, Gil, Chad, Evie_}. They've said their prayers to their gods, and they've done their research. This will work {_this has to work_}.

_Mother magic, now we ask,_

_We have one, most vital task,_

_we must bring our youth to nest,_

_but we must not free the rest_

_Wiðtêon dôð cnæpling æt−bregdan duguð îeg_

_Blinnan wægn forgyltantæfl lêoran_

_Bearncennicge scînlâc oferhîeran ûs of pro ic biddan_

_Bearncennicge galdorcræft byrg ûs of pro ic to ûser weorc_

They chant the spell thirteen times in thirteen minutes, each time another member of the circle joining in. Magic cracks around them and lightning arcs through the room and none of them can stop, even when Mal feels the others growing weaker {_they're human, how could she forget, they're human and they won't survive this_}. She gives them her magic, and Evie and Uma and Jay give theirs, but it's not enough, Mal can feel Ben's life force slipping away.

Mal feels a stray tendril of wild magic, still strong. Her mother's magic, she knows {_it feels like Audrey had felt when Mal went to fight her. It feels like abuse_}.

Mal latches on and _pulls_ her mother's magic into the wild mess of it, even as her mother goes limp {_she and Evie hold tighter because they __**can't break the circle**_}. She wrestles it into submission until it tastes like her _own _magic {_like spray paint and honey and red wine_}.

But her priorities have shifted, and thus the spell does too, focusing on keeping her people alive instead.

The barrier is open, though, and she can't stop what's going to happen next.

When the spell ends, the power of the fey and the gods cracks in her bones and, with certainty, she knows four things:

Her mother is dead.

Her father is free.

She has won.

She has never been more alone.


	8. Can't Stop Staring at Your Lovely Eyes

The spell they chose to cast was one Mal had designed- there was simply no way for another spell to accomplish _quite _what they wanted- but it hadn't been enough. The spell had been too strong, and too many of their circle had been entirely human, and at the height of the spell, she'd been able to feel the life forces of all thirteen members of the circle fading.

And she'd made a plan.

In that moment, she had been forced to make a decision, and she had chosen family over blood. She had chosen Ben over Maleficent. Her husband over her mother. She'd grasped Maleficent's magic and _pulled,_ hard, _dragging_ her mother's magic and life force from her body, and pushed it into the souls of the other members of the circle- Ben, who had slumped over, only weakly holding Carlos's hand, and Gil and Lonnie, leaning heavily on the people around them.

She did this and the magic in the room swelled and grew frantic, and she felt her mother's hand go limp in hers {_she knew, then, what she'd done, but she hadn't thought about it until later_}. And still, she held her mother's hand {_corpse_} tighter, because the spell wasn't _done_ and she couldn't let all of this be for _nothing_.

And when the spell ended, she and Evie dropped her mother's body to the floor, running over to the King of Auradon, only barely hearing the hollow _thud_ of Maleficent hitting the floor as she cradled Ben's head in her lap.

Carlos dropped beside her, holding her even as magic hummed over her skin, letting off tiny sparks. Jay stood behind them, watching as Uma dropped to care for Harry and Gil, and Chad, Jane, Doug and Lonnie huddled on the floor.

Evie was the one who threw open the doors, looking out towards the Isle of the Lost. Her gasp was so soft, Carlos next to her likely couldn't even hear it. But Mal could. And besides that, she already knew what it meant, because she had let the focus of the spell shift.

The spell that had taken Maleficent's life hadn't been strong enough to keep Hades on the Isle. She has set the people of the Isle free- all of them. She has beaten the heroes. She has been condemned to protecting Hell.

She has never been more alone.

* * *

Mal stares up at the ceiling of the Palace of Hell.

She's been in the same position for so long that her limbs are stiff. She's more like the bodies of the souls she's meant to guard than she would like, but she can't bring herself to move.

She's been lying in the same position for nearly a decade now, she thinks. Maybe more. Time went wobbly, at some point after the sixth century of being the Regent of Hell. It was inconsistent, and, to tell the truth, unimportant.

Her hair is midnight blue and if she stood up would trail behind her on the floor {_she doesn't stand up_}. The nightgown she's wearing is thin, now, and discoloured (once, it was the colours of Auradon. Now, it's white) {_she doesn't change_}. She's grown thin, thinner than Evie was at her worst times on the Isle (she knows because she's _so cold- _there's nothing left to her) {_she doesn't eat_}.

Of course, none of this keeps her from fulfilling her promise- but, as it turns out, the Underworld can mostly take care of itself. She's not needed nearly as desperately as her step-mother had made it seem, all those years ago {_then again, time passes differently for the gods like it does for her now. Maybe after a millennia, ten years will feel like mere seconds to her as well_}.

"Your grace," someone says at the door, and she hums in response, not bothering to move. They cough and try again. "Your grace?"

She'd been trying to see how long she could lie still before she simply got so _bored_ that she could actually sleep, but it seemed that that wouldn't be allowed. She sat up, sighing and cracking her neck.

"Yes-" she broke off, staring at the servant, trying to remember their name. _Was it important?_

"Kharon." The servant told her, dead-faced. She wondered how long they'd been at _their _job. She wondered if they hated it as much as she hated hers.

"Kharon," she echoed, trying to sound as though the name meant something to her {_maybe it had, once upon a time, but it had been a while since she'd had to use words, and she was still regaining the feeling for them_}, "what is it?"

"Someone who requests to see you, your Grace." She silently raised an eyebrow, but the point was conveyed very clearly- _who the fuck thinks they have the right?_

She swung her feet over the bed and took a second to brace herself before standing up. She tipped but didn't fall over. Kharon caught her elbow and placed her arm over theirs.

"Thank you."

The words were foreign- she likely hadn't said them since- _no._ She didn't think about Auradon. _She didn't_.

As she made for the door, Kharon coughed again.

"What _is _it?" She asked, spinning to face them.

"Your- uh- your attire may not be considered entirely _appropriate,_ your grace."

She laughed {_the last time she had laughed had been- several hundred years ago, at least_}.

"I'm the Queen," she told them, "who's going to say anything?"

"_Regent_-" the ghoul tried to interject, but Mal just rolled her eyes.

"My father and his _bitch _of a wife haven't been seen in six centuries, Kharon. I've been the Queen of the Underworld since I fucking arrived."

Kharon said nothing, but their silent disapproval permeated the room.

"_Fine_," she sighed, rolling her eyes. She stretched her arms out above her, closing her eyes as her hair grew backwards into the short cut she'd kept it in as a teenager on the Isle. Her frayed nightgown replaced itself with an evening dress made only of lace. A crown of dying roses and ivory found its place atop her head.

She took Kharon's arm again, letting them lead her through the twists and turns of the palace she'd once known and since forgotten.

As they approached the doors to the throne room together, a cold voice announced, "Her Majesty Queen Mal, High Queen over Auradon and the Isle and Regent of the Underworld presiding."

Mal entered, letting her bare feet peek out from underneath the dress. Next to her, Kharon rolled their eyes, and she smiled at them.

"Well?" she asked as she settled on the stairs below the throne {_it wasn't hers, after all_}.

"W- _Well?"_ the woman below her echoed. "Mal, it's _me."_

Mal didn't remember the woman in question at _all. _She had ice blonde hair and deep brown eyes, and something in them made Mal halt.

"_Should I?_"

"It's _me_," the woman bit out, heartbreak in her throat. "It's _Evie_."

* * *

"So… what do we do now?" Evie asks her from the balcony.

Mal looks up from where her forehead is pressed against Ben's.

"Do?"

"Yeah," Evie says, "What's' our backup plan? What's the next step?" Mal's body freezes.

"There isn't one."

She can't break Evie's stare even as the other girl's eyes bore into her.

"What the fuck is _that_ supposed to mean?" Carlos asks, his voice loud in her ear. That's what manages to pull her from her ex-girlfriend.

"It means it's _over_, okay? We won, and now I keep my promise."

"You've broken a Promise before-"

"I _haven't!"_ She shrieks, moving away from Ben. She can feel his and Uma's eyes on her, but she can't stop herself.

"I _duped_ the system. I didn't break a Promise, I nullified it! It didn't _matter_ that Ben had Promised me his kingdom because it was _already mine_. I _cheated _my father, okay, and now it's come back to _bite _me."

"To be fair, it was a clever plan," a gravelly voice says behind her.

"Daddy," she says, without turning around. She's only heard it a couple of times, but she recognizes her father's voice.

"Korë." He's examining the room carefully, and when she turns to look at him, he's staring at Maleficent's body, still lying where she and Evie had dropped it.

"It got me for long enough, didn't it?" He says, "you got the ember."

Mal heaves a sigh and brushes the pads of her fingers across her cheekbones, eliminating any moisture that gathered there.

"It doesn't matter now," she tells him, "I have a kingdom to run." His eyes soften as he looks at her.

"You can take your time, Korë," he tells her softly, but his voice isn't made to be gentle and it sounds calculating instead, "I don't mind briefly returning home while you sort things out on this end." By the way his eyes drift over to where Ben, Carlos and Jay are standing (Ben now resting heavily on Jay and Carlos) she assumes he means her marriage and not the escapees from the Isle when he says 'things'.

"In exchange for?" She prompts and rolls her eyes when he tries to act shocked. "I've spent enough time around my step-mother to understand that the lot of you never do anything for free."

"In exchange for- a favour, to be determined at a future date," he says. And Mal's eyes wander over to her mother's body where it's lying (they should really move it, or at least close her eyes) and remembers one of the pieces of advice her mother gave her as a child when she was still _making Mal fey- don't give handouts. We're not Seelie. We don't do favours for friends. We're fey, and we have pride._

"No," she says shaking her head. She locks eyes with her father, and he must know her decision is made, because he nods once and says, "I'll give you a minute to say goodbye."

It's all he can afford her, and she's grateful anyway. What a sad state her life is in, at this point.

And maybe she'll regret it later, but as he steps out onto the balcony, she doesn't go to her husband.

She goes to Evie, Carlos, and Jay.

She pulls them tight into her, soaking in their scents and trying to commit them to her memory.

She holds Carlos's face in her hands and kisses him, hard. She lets her right hand wander over to rest on Evie's where it's set on her shoulder and leans back into the other girl, letting her kiss the exposed expanse of skin. The tears run down her cheeks as she presses her forehead to Jay's.

"We'll go with you." Carlos offers. She shakes her head, and the tears go flying.

"I can't let you-"

"It's not about _letting _us." Carlos argues, "I heard what Persephone told you- that she- that _Aphrodite_ thought that _we_\- the four of us- belonged together."

"It's us, Mal," Jay told her, "It's like I _told_ you, nothing will stop us from loving you for the rest of our lives."

Mal let her breath fall out of her in one long sigh.

"We've been through a _lot_, together. We're not stopping that now."

"We're not," Mal agrees, "We're together in _everything_, always. It's the four of us. And when you die, you can join me. But until then- I will _never _forgive myself if you're all condemned to this too, because of my mistakes- you have to _promise_ me," she continues forcefully when it looks like Evie wants to break in, "all four of you have to promise me that you'll live out a full life because I _can't _let you ruin your lives for me."

There's a long silence, and then Jay nods.

"Yeah, okay," he says, voice thick with tears, "I Promise."

He's not fey, and not obligated to keep his promise beyond anything more than his word, but she knows he will. Because she's asked him to.

"_Jay!"_ Evie hisses, sounding offended.

"It's what she wants, E," he tells her, and for a second, there's a silent battle of wills going on above Mal's head before Evie relents too.

"I Promise," she swears.

"Carlos?" The eyes of the other three are on him, and the entire room as well.

"I don't want to do it," he says. "You've been there for me since I was _six_, Mal, let me do this for you."

It's the first time any of the four of them have mentioned the odd jobs Mal used to do for them when they were children, and something in Mal _shatters_, because there's something so very final about it.

"That would mean that I would have to stop protecting you," she tells him, "and you know I can't do that."

When Carlos nods, it's resigned. It's tired and small.

"I Promise."

She pulls away from them and walks over to her mother, closing her eyes and nudging her limbs until it looks like she's just sleeping.

"Êower brêostloca wuduwe mid wægn gyden," she whispers. _Your soul remains with the goddess._

She stands up and finds herself caught in Uma's arms.

"Look after yourself, your majesty," the sea-witch says, and Mal thinks that finally, all their past has been forgiven. _Home,_ her magic sings, _home._

"You know I will." She has to swallow again because the tears threaten to choke her. Uma stares at her for another second, long and hard, before nodding and pulling away.

Eventually, Mal is standing at Ben's side. He's crying too, but she doesn't think it's just because she's leaving.

"Did you _ever_ love me?" He asks her, and his voice cracks before he's halfway through the sentence.

"I did." Mal has to pause and bite her tongue, "I still do."

"But not as much as them."

"Different to them," she corrects, but she thinks the damage is done.

"Live a good life?" She asks him. "And promise me you'll protect those kids."

He nods fervently, pauses a second, and presses a last, sweet kiss to her lips.

She doesn't need to ask him for a verbal promise. Ben is the best man she's ever known.

She stops one last time, to kiss the great loves of her life. She kisses each of them- first Jay, and then Evie, and then Carlos {_she thinks about how it's the reverse order of how she'd kissed them that first New Years' Day and thinks of it like opening and closing brackets to their relationship_}.

The Claddagh on her left hand aches softly, and she wishes there was a way to end this that didn't end in heartbreak.

"I'm ready," she tells Hades, and they step forward, off the balcony, and disappear.

* * *

"Evie?"

She doesn't look anything like Mal remembers her- white hair, plain cotton clothing, tanned skin. She isn't seventeen years old anymore, and it shows.

"Mal."

Evie's voice is so _terribly _sad, but Mal remembers it now, and an instinct deep inside her moves her to stand up and run down the stairs, to take Evie in her arms. And hold her so tight she can't possibly get away.

"Evie, what are you _doing _here?" She eventually manages to ask, when she can do more than sob into her lover's chest. Evie smiles softly, warmly.

"I grew _old_, Mal." Mal frowns- there's something wrong with that, something that doesn't add up.

"You're a witch." She tells Evie, and Evie _laughs_ and Mal hasn't heard something so beautiful in centuries.

"Yes, I am." Evie agrees. Mal moves them so that they're sitting on the stairs, at the base of the throne. She strokes Evie's hair, just taking comfort in the other woman being _there_ and _real_.

"Witches live a long time." It's taking her long- too long- to get the point she's trying to make across, but every couple of seconds she's just overwhelmed by _Evie_ and has to take a moment to marvel at her.

"They do." Evie seems content to let her riddle this out at her own pace, and so Mal accepts her gift and continues staring softly at her as she does, drinking her in.

"You didn't."

"No, I didn't," Evie agrees with her.

"You _Promised_," Mal accuses. Evie sighs softly and takes Mal's hands in her own.

"I lived a full life, Mal. I promise I did. I saw the world, I helped the kids of the Isle- I _had_ kids," she tells her, "two girls. But I didn't _want _to live seven-, eight-hundred years, especially not when I'd be living them alone."

"Jay's a djinn," Mal says because she knows it to be true, even if the fact is only partially there, hidden in some deep corner of her mind.

"A _free_ djinn," Evie corrects softly, "Who ages at the same rate as any other human."

Mal stares at Evie for so long, she wonders if she's slipped back into the dream-like state she'd been in the last ten years.

And then the dam breaks.

She kisses Evie, hard and happy, and she's _not alone_ anymore.

"The others are coming?" she asks when they finally come up for air.

"Soon, probably," Evie confirms, and Mal's smile cracks her lips.

"God, E, I'm so glad you're here. It's been a long six hundred years."

"_Six hundred?_" Evie shrieks and Mal frowns, confused. "Is this wrong for you?"

"Yeah, Mal," Evie tells her. "Humans don't live six hundred years- it's closer to _sixty_. I was eighty-four when I died."

Evie stares at her, horrified, and suddenly Mal wonders how she couldn't remember this woman- _this_ look on Evie is so intimately familiar.

"Mal," she asks in a hushed tone, "_how long have you been here?_"

"Six hundred and forty-two years, eight months, and eleven days," Kharon tells Evie from where they're standing at attendance, and Mal shoots them a grateful smile. They grin back, (although it's really more like a grimace when most of their skin is gone).

Evie promptly bursts into tears and then flings herself into Mal's arms.

"I'm _so sorry_," she cries, "_I'm so so sorry Mal, it wasn't supposed to be so long_." To be honest, Mal isn't quite sure why Evie is apologizing- it's not _her _fault she took so long to die- if anyone's at fault, it's Thanatos, or maybe Cer.

But Mal spent seventeen years comforting Evie, and it's one thing that she knows how to do, and can do it well.

As it turns out, Evie being around is really good for Mal. She eats more, and tries to fall asleep less, and doesn't spend decades staring at the ceiling anymore.

Evie fixes Persephone's garden, bringing all the plants inside it back from the dead. Mal doesn't know how she does it, as they've been dead for several centuries, but then again, they'd recently established that time in the Underworld was more wobbly than even she knew, so maybe it wasn't that difficult.

She also tells Mal what became of all of them after she left- of how Audrey never woke up {_Mal knows this much- she'd watched the princess walk in several centuries ago. She hadn't stopped to say hello_}. Of Ben naming Mal _high queen_ over Auradon so that she'd always have a place to return to when she was released from her promise. Of his marriage to Uma, of all people. Of everything she, Jay and Carlos had done together. Of their two daughters- Cali and _Maleficent_. For her, for _Mal_.

They while the time away like that- and it takes several decades before Mal is summoned to the throne room for another guest.

It's not Jay or Carlos.

Ben is kneeling before the throne, and Mal hides out of his frame of vision for a second and just watches him. Evie told her about all the amazing things he did, and Mal still loves him, but not the way she was _supposed _to. The festering skin around the Claddagh is enough to tell her that, even if she didn't know it in her heart of hearts. Still.

"Stand up, Ben," she tells him. "You don't kneel before me. You don't kneel before anyone."

He does stand up, and she hugs him.

"It's good to see you," they tell each other, and then laugh at the synchronicity.

"So, tell me about your wife," Mal requests, and his face _lights up_.

Ben eventually moves on to Elysium, where Uma is waiting {_Uma was picked up by Cer long before Thanatos came for Ben_}.

Jay and Carlos come within hours of each other.

It's Jay first, surprisingly, and Mal thinks it's funny that out of the four of them, Carlos was supposed to have the shortest lifespan, and ended up living the longest.

Jay looks closest to how she remembers him as a teenager- long hair, no sleeves, devil-may-care attitude. He holds her tight and presses a kiss to her brow and Evie cradles the both of them to her and Mal thinks that she could stay like that for another hundred years if she needed to.

She doesn't, though, because another pair of arms wrap themselves around her from behind, and she doesn't need to look at him to know who it is, because he still _smells_ the same {_like leather and old paper and electric smoke_}.

And she's _home_.

* * *

_**Oh my god, that's a wrap on the Korë-verse. At least for now. And let me tell you all, I've been so flattered by the amazing response to it. Every fic that someone posts that is inspired by the Korë-verse is the most beautiful thing I've ever read. Every comment is so kind.**_

_**I was really annoyed with Descendants 3, and Korë was only ever supposed to be a handy tool to vent my frustration. It was supposed to be 3 chapters long, and written within the week of D3's release.**_

_**Ya'll are the ones who inspired me to go further, to make more out of Korë. Thank you for that.**_

_**This chapter is dedicated to you. ****To ****PBWritesStuff and Robby the Cyber Warrior who've been reading my fics for years****. To**** everyone else who reviewed or favourited or followed or just read the story and enjoyed it. And, of course, to Jules.**_

_**Love,**_  
_**Harley**_


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